A Hella Bad Day
by Avalon1632
Summary: After 5 years of married life travelling the Galaxy, Chloe and Max return to their old home, Arcadia Station, a tiny spaceport in a backwater system. They settle down, reconnect with old friends and family. When one of those friends asks a favour, they see no problem with helping out. Little did they know, that favour was the start of a hella bad day… Inspired by Dead Space.
1. The Bad Day Begins

Chapter I: The Bad Day Begins...

* * *

AN:  
Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Well, long time no see, y'all. How are you? I'm... irritable and overworked, as usual. Had more trouble with my interwubs. Apparently it's fixed now, but I still have no idea what actually went wrong in the first place, despite having it explained to me like eight different times in twenty different ways.

Unfortunately, I keep all my uni work, fic chapters and pretty much everything else on an online file-hosting server thing, which didn't save or corrupted or something when the internet went down originally. I've basically lost a bunch of essays and, more importantly, the chapters I'd started to build up for my four already-uploaded stories. (Two for each one, btw.). Since the uni work took priority to redo first, I've not had time to write anything new for you guys, so... yeah.

While I rebuild my stash of chapters for the already uploaded stuff, I'm putting up a few of these, just to say "Hey, I'm not dead, just hella, hella busy." They're a couple of new chapters for some of the stories from the 'planned' section on my Fanfiction .net profile. Anyways. Putting up a couple now, but I have two or three more that are very nearly done, so I should be uploading those in the next week or so. I'm dropping the Tuesday-only Uploading Thing for now, but when I'm done with Uni I'll be getting back to that.

Oh, and the Inklewriter version of The Airplane Job (a multiple choice game prequel to The Blackwell Job) will be up around then too. I'm just adding a few finishing touches to that.

This one is based on the world of Dead Space. For those of you who don't know it, it's a far-future sci-fi video-game series thing. Basically, you play the universe's most "Fuck it. Hold my beer, I got this" engineer ever, a dude called Isaac Clarke. All three games are just him seeing shit that would make normal people run screaming in the other direction, then MacGyvering tools/guns out of stuff he finds in lockers to deal with it. It's actually a surprisingly decent horror-experience, if you're into Gore and Paranoia-Inducing Jump-Scare Suspense. Personally, I'm more for the Alan Wake, Lovecraftian Psychological Horror, but Dead Space makes a fun gore-fest.

Anyways, it was a bit weird to write this one. The characters are supposed to be, like, ten years older than they are in game, so I tried to write them the same, but sort of upping the maturity a bit. For Max, that was basically just less "Umm..."-ing. I'm not sure if I got it or not, but hey, that's for y'all to decide. Let me know what you think. Plus, I suck at all things horror. I've tried to run D&D games in that genre in the past and they've never gone right.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

* * *

Arcadia Station was a backwater trading post in a backwater system on the outermost reaches of human space. Both Chloe and me were born here, but we'd left, like, ten years ago after some... shitty things happened. We travelled around a lot, just trying to see the universe I guess. And then one day, I dunno, we sort of just ended up back here. I still have no idea how. We settled down, got jobs, started living life again.

That was five years ago. Right now, it's early morning and, in a tiny backroom of a tiny office, I was still burning the midnight oil.

I had an editorial piece on the new station security protocols (We were in favour of them, obviously. It was bad for a journalist's health to be against things our 'beloved EarthGov' wanted), plus a front page article on Unitology to finish and I'd decided the early hours of the morning was the perfect time to do so.

Glamorous life of the photo-journalist, eh?

I sigh.

What's a better word for uncommunicative? Secretive? Or... um... not talkative?

I sigh again. Those all suck.

Jeez, no wonder I keep losing at scrabble. Where did I put that dogdamn thesaurus? I minimised the article and checked around for the Thesaurus program. I frown in dismay at the pile of shortcuts scattered everywhere. Wowsers, my desktop is messy. I really should tidy it up sometime.

"Max?" A voice calls out curiously. I recognise it immediately, mainly because it's usually yelling at me to get back to work. Obviously, since this is me, this happens a lot.

I turn and grin sheepishly at my Boss, Victoria, who was standing in the door, checking her Chrono. "What the hell are you still doing here? It's nearly 4am."

I shrug, waving at the lit screen in front of me. "Just working on the new front-piece for next weeks edition."

Victoria had been pushing it at me all week. She could be very... um... 'insistent' sometimes. She'd always been like that, ever since I took the job. For every single draft I'd handed in for the last five years, it was "Come on Max, I know you can do better than this." Then she'd bin my draft and tell me "So go do better."

For the first year-ish, I'd resented the crap outta her for it. But now... I kinda just wanted to do better. Her approval had this weird effect on me, like I _wanted_ to get it. Probably Stockholm Syndrome kicking in, but whatever. I still had a job and I'd written some pretty decent stuff.

She raises one elegantly arched eyebrow. I thought faintly that her stylist definitely deserved a raise. "At 4am?"

I smirk. Victoria seems to be ignoring the fact that she's still here too. She always was just as much of a workaholic as me. "Best time for it, Boss." The smirk turns into a happy smile as I share. "Plus, Chloe's off work at 6, we're going to have breakfast." This didn't happen a lot. Working two demanding jobs with pretty much opposite schedules meant we only really got to see each other at times when normal people were asleep.

It fucking sucked.

Victoria leans back against the bulkhead by the door and scoffs. "They've still got her on the fucking graveyard shift?"

I nodded. They did and Chloe was so irritated by it. I always had to prod her out of bed for her shift or she'd be late every time. "Yep. She's out on the station outskirts this morning."

She rolls her eyes. "Fucking ridiculous. She's been working here for five fucking years, Max. She should not still be on the fucking graveyard shift. If you want, I could call that asshole boss of hers and get her moved?" She grins wolfishly. "He's been terrified of me ever since we ran that article on the illegal maintenance bot fights his predecessor was running."

I shrug hesitantly and offer an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Victoria. You know Chloe wouldn't go for it. She's still pissed off with you after the Betelgeusian Pineapple incident."

Don't ask. You don't want to know. Seriously.

She snorts, rolling her eyes. "Chloe doesn't have to know. Just one call. Then you'd actually get to see each other at normal fucking hours."

I throw her the best warning look I could manage. I still sucked at the whole asserting myself thing. "Victoria..."

She puts up her hands, scowling off into the distance as if she could let Chloe know how annoyed she was by, like, telepathy or something. Dog, if anyone could manage that, it'd be Victoria. "Fine, fine. Chloe is too damn stubborn for her own good."

She focuses her irritated gaze back on me. "And so are you. You should be at home, sleeping." She flashes another grin, a sudden impish look in her eyes. "What's the point in a romantic breakfast with your wife if you're so tired you end up with one hipster shirt-clad elbow in those greasy waffles you're always eating." She pulls herself up straighter, putting on the Boss Christensen-Chase mask again. "Go home, Max. That's an order."

I grinned. "C'mon. Just five more minutes, mom." I batted my eyes at her and she melted before my 'quirky charm'. Direct quote, I swear. Victoria is weirdly affectionate when she's drunk. But that is... also a story for another time.

She rolled her eyes. "Jesus, Max. Fine. But if I find you here when I get in tomorrow, I'll put you on administrative leave, got it?" She glares. "Without pay."

I nodded, carefully avoiding the smile that threatened to burst out onto my face. She threatens that every time. She'd never do it. But she'd be so pissed if she thought I wasn't taking her seriously. "Thanks, Tori. Tell Taylor I said Hi."

She smiles, back to Friend-Victoria again. "Will do. Night, Nerd." With her warning given, she heads out of the office.

I breath a long-suffering sigh and turn back to my computer. Okay, Max. You can do this. Just one more hour, then I should have this done. Hopefully.

* * *

The Two Whales Commissary was the best restaurant on the whole station, in my opinion anyway. It was a little place, off in the outer sections of the station ring. I had to ride the auto-rail from the office for nearly thirty minutes to get there. So many creeps on there at this time of night, like, jeez.

I walk into the Commissary, heading over to mine and Chloe's usual booth off in the corner. I ran my hand along the dulled metal surface as I sat down, feeling the ridges and bumps of years along its surface. I grinned at the little carved "Chloe and Max 4-eva" in a heart tucked off on the wall edge of the booth. Chloe had wanted to get a plaque made, claiming the booth as ours permanently, but Joyce threatened a cut-off of waffles if she tried it, so that plan died a quick death.

A couple of seconds after I'd settled down, Joyce appeared, datapad in hand. "Well, good mornin' Max. What brings you by so early?" She grins, wryly. "Not that I'm complainin'." She looks around the nearly deserted diner. "It's nice to have a little company."

I shrug, smiling back. I was always happy to see Joyce. And not just because she gave me food. "Just waiting for Chloe. She gets off work in thirty minutes, so we're grabbing breakfast before we head home."

Joyce smiles. "Good for you two. Key to a good marriage. Now, you wanna order now or are you gonna wait for my daughter the working stiff to turn up?"

"I'll wait." I check my Chrono. "She shouldn't be long. I hope, anyway..." I trail off and we both grin knowingly. "So, anything happening with you, Joyce? How's David doing?"

Joyce slides into the booth opposite me. "Nothin' new with me, Max. And he's good. I think he's handlin' the move to desk work really well." She tilts her head and smiles. "And he's learnin' to deal with the cane a lot better now too."

I smile. "That's awesome, Joyce. Glad to hear it. I know he'd struggled after the accident..." I trailed off awkwardly. Shit, I feel so fucking awkward with this stuff. I never knew what to say. "So, have you heard about the new ruling from up high?"

Joyce lets me change the subject without comment, immediately snorting with derision. "Those damn bureaucrats have no idea what they're doing..."

* * *

She heads back to work a little after six as the morning crowd comes in. I look around at all the strange, strange people who think six is a good time to be awake. Bastards. But they make fun people-watching targets, even if it is insanely early.

Chloe slides her way in at about quarter past six, pushing the door open with her elbow and ambling over to me. I glare as she walks over, whistling. She doesn't do it for long, but it's enough for my mind to grab the song and wrap my arms around it like The Captain. "Seriously, Chlo?"

She stops, eyes suddenly bulging in panic. "What? Did I do something wrong?" She looks behind her, like she knocked something over on her way in. Which had actually happened before in a museum on Sirius Nine, but the less said about that, the better.

"Dog!" I rub at my temples. "That bloody song again?" I scowl. "I'm never going to get it out of my head at this rate!"

Chloe laughs loudly, drawing a few 'jeez, shut the hell up' looks from the other patrons. "Dude, that song is hella awesome and you fucking know it."

I roll my eyes. "You're so hella wrong, but I'll let you off this once. So, how was work?"

She flops into our booth, letting all the air out of herself in one big sigh. "It was shit. Valleau spent half my shift pushing us to the fucking limit. Fuck, if we didn't need the money, I'd punch that asshole out an airlock."

I frown. "Don't you mean Push?"

"Nope. Literally. I'd punch him out." She mimes a little right hook. "Ker-pow, right in the fucking kisser."

I lean back and smile at her, tentatively tossing out a "Well, Victoria offered her help again. If you'd just..."

She scoffs, cutting me off. "I don't need the rich bitch to bail me out. Nah, I just gotta work a bit longer, and I can get transferred to another shift." Chloe had been saying this for three years straight. She'd probably say it for three more. We were total opposites like that. Chloe would fight to the bitter end if she thought she was right, but I always gave in. I hated fighting, plus I was just bad at it, so I never bothered.

I take a deep breath and try to calm down. Joyce picks that moment to appear at the edge of the booth. She always did have good timing. "Well hey there, Chloe. Good morning."

Chloe smiles, bad mood immediately disappearing. Another way we were total opposites. I continued to simmer quietly. "Morning Mom."

She pulls her datapad out, stylus at the ready. "So, what can I get you?" She smirks. "Not that I can't already guess." Mom-mode switches on. "It wouldn't kill you to get some variety in your diet y'know, Chloe."

Chloe rolls her eyes. "Okay, Mom... Jeez..."

Joyce sighs. "I know, I know, I'm sorry. You're an adult now and you can make your own decisions, but you're still my little girl too."

They look at each other for a few seconds until Chloe suddenly sighs too. "Fine." I grin, immensely pleased with the outcome. Before we left, Chloe would've never given in like that. She really had mellowed with age.

"So," Joyce manages to keep the grin off her face, but I knew she's jumping and fistpumping in the air at getting Chloe to back down. "two fruit salads to start, then the waffles?"

Chloe grimaces and forces out "Yeah. Sounds great."

Joyce laughs and heads off to the kitchen. Chloe glares at her back the entire way. When Joyce disappears through the kitchen door, Chloe shifts her eyes back to me and snorts. "Har har. Laugh it up, Maxie. Fucking laugh it up."

I grin. "Oh, I am."

We don't really talk about anything in particular, but we're both grinning the whole time. I settle my hand in my hands and let her ramble on about Trevor and Justin and their new engineering design (Which fills me with a familiar brand of terror, especially after their last big idea. I'd walked in one evening to find my chair in pieces and the toaster had been turned into a plasma cutter), how the new kid on her shift had fucked up something called a retrograde capacitor, the shitty storm coming up, self-sealing stimbolts and three-pulse-converters, and I smile the whole time.

Then I tell her about Victoria's latest baby-news, receiving much sadistic laughter in return (and the image of Victoria, up at 3am trying to get an uncooperative 1-year old to drink from a bottle is absolutely hilarious), the story of Hayden's newest conquest and how he had to climb out of a fifteenth story window when her husband got back, new station regs and the latest news from our 'benevolent' government.

We'd both be the first to admit it's not the most romantic of conversations. But it works for us. Somewhere in all that, Joyce slips in, slides two plates onto the table, and slips out without us ever noticing. We just keep talking, off in our own little world. Joyce was a frakking good waitress.

We get drawn out by a chirpy, irritating little alarm. Chloe sighs and checks her Chrono. "Shit, dude. We gotta hit the road."

We grab our plates and hurry over to Joyce at the counter, sliding the plates over to her. "Thanks, Joyce. Awesome as always."

She nods, "Thanks, kids. Have a good day.", we say our goodbyes and go.

On the way out, we stop in front of the huge exterior window that dominates an entire wall of the diner.

The view is phenomenal. The window is at a seriously perfect angle. It gives this amazing look on the system, the light of our two stars framed by a starfield in the background and the planets revolving them.

I'd gotten so many pictures out of this window. The view still astonishes me just as much today as it did before we left the station a decade ago.

We just... stand for a minute, staring out.

"Wowzers..."

Chloe snorts, then nudges me with a laugh, her usual teasing, devil-may-care grin on her face. "Come on then, Beat Poet. Give us a verse on the stars."

I snort derisively. "That's more Rachel's thing than mine, Chloe."

Chloe freezes.

Shit.

I reached out and took her hand. "Dog, I'm sorry Chloe."

Rachel was a... delicate topic ever since she'd joined the Unitologists a few months back. It was completely out of the blue and she just dropped out of contact with all of us. Chloe felt... abandoned. Not surprising, given she was basically the poster child for childhood neglect.

Woah. The Kate in my head made a shocked sound. That was so mean!

She really was though. First her Dad had died in an auto-lane accident, then I'd shipped off to another system for college, then her Step-Father had been an borderline-absentee workaholic douchebag. Then, once we'd reunited and I thought that sort of stuff would be over for her, Rachel had happened.

We'd pretty much been ignoring the whole thing, except for a few slip-ups by my dumbass self.

Her hand pulled away from mine and she took a few steps away from me, rubbing at her face. Dogdamnit, Max.

I waited for a couple minutes as Chloe pushed all the feelings of hurt and neglect back into the little box she kept them in somewhere off in the back of her head.

She took a deep shaky breath and smiled. "Yeah. Let's go. I'm fucking beat." She throws her arm over my shoulder and we head for the door.

The door swings open and we see... "Kate!"

The little mousy blonde blinked in shock at us for a second, before her face clears and she beams. "Hey guys. How are you two?"

I smile. "Good. Pretty tired, honestly. We've both just got off work."

Chloe nodded vaguely, not looking at Kate. I sighed.

Things had been a little awkward with Kate and Chloe, ever since Rachel joined her church. Pretty sure Chloe blamed her for the whole thing. Unitologists weren't shy about their religion and were always trying to encourage more people to join and Rachel had been talking to Kate a lot before she disappeared.

Kate smiled. "I get that. Things have been so hectic at the Church lately, this is basically my first break in a month."

I grimace. "Ooof. That sounds sucky."

She laughs faintly. "Its really not so bad. I'm just cranky." She clicks her fingers. "Oh, before I forget, I wanted to ask for your help with something this evening. It won't take too long, I just need a little technical expertise." She smiles at Chloe. "And you're the best I know. So, um... will you? Please?"

Chloe just stays silent for a second. Then another. Then another. I step forward, taking her arm. "Of course we'll help."

She beams. "Fantastic. Meet me at Hampton just after 9 tonight. Thank you so much." She heads past us into the diner. I elbow Chloe. "Hey. You ok?"

She gives me a blank look, then smiles absently.

I sigh. Damn it. "Come on, Chlo. Let's get out of here."

We head off home and go straight to bed.

Not like that! You dirty-minded people! Jeez.

* * *

We find Kate standing next to an open door on Hampton, the Command Tower looming up behind us.

She grins and rushes over to us as we walk up. Now, Chloe and I had like a foot height difference, but Kate still managed to hug the shit out of both of us at the same time, wrapping her arms tightly around us. "Thank you so much for helping with this!" She lets go and takes a couple steps back, instantly going back to the calm and reserved front she usually put on. "I know you're not part of the flock, but the fact you're willing to help is very appreciated."

She turns and heads back over to the door, waving us over when we don't immediately follow. "Come on! We've not got long."

Chloe and I share a look. I shrug, she nods, and we head in. I feel strangely apprehensive as the door slides shut behind us.

About five minutes down the corridor, we hit a t-junction. Kate stops, looks both ways, then pauses. She sighs. "One minute. I know it's around here somewhere." She clicks open her RIG, watching as it quickly plots a route through her map of whatever Unitologist facility we're in.

When it's done, she takes a sharp left and skitters off down the corridor, leaving me and Chloe to trail after her.

We catch up as she reaches another solid door at the end of the corridor. She opens it in a second, crosses a room with a single desk and one of those pretentious fountains rich-corporate people always have, and takes a door in the far corner into another T-Shaped corridor.

I catch a couple of voices coming from the corridor to our left. Kate suddenly stops, listening for a second, then quickly opens a door and slips inside. I frown. "Uh, Kate?"

She turns, calm smile still on her face. "Yes?"

"Why are we hiding in an office?"

She shakes her head in that 'oh, aren't you ever so silly' way that some people do when you don't see something that seems really obvious to them. "We're not hiding, Max. Those are the devoted, praying for the ceremony. We can't disturb them, so we'll stay here till they pass."

I don't know how she's going to hear if they do, this door is really thick. But, whatever. We wait for a few minutes until she's satisfied, then we get moving again.

We take the corridor the voices came from, then two rights, down a long corridor, another right, then across a room filled with desks, but no people, and then a left until Kate stops suddenly in front of a large double-door. It's a security model, like the one we have at the front of the office to prevent break-ins. You could shoot one of these things with a rocket launcher and it wouldn't crack. Wowzers. What the hell are they keeping in here?

Kate taps the open button, raising a screen on her RIG and scowling when it flashes orange. Locked. She fiddles for a few seconds and the orange turns to blue as the door slides open, revealing a control room of some sort.

Kate immediately heads in, motioning us to follow yet again. What the fuck have we agreed to do here?

The room is pretty big. Bigger than I was expecting, anyway. It's like twice the size of our apartment, but that's not really saying much. The wall opposite is a huge transpari-steel window. Jeez, whoever built this place believed in serious overkill. Who were they expecting to try blow their way in here? Then again, these guys are Unitologists.

The walls to our left and right were lined with a crapload of consoles and screens, all showing some coded screensaver. Between us and the window was another line of consoles, but the screens there were showing this green shape. It looked like a big pillar of some sort. Probably a Unitologist symbol, I guess.

Kate goes straight to this console and taps in a code. The pillar-symbols disappear and the standard computer desktop appears. She turns to Chloe with a smile. "This is where I'll be needing your help please, Chloe."

Chloe sticks her hands in her pocket and, with one last pissed-off glance at me, ambles over to Kate.

I wander towards the window and stare out as Chloe and Kate fiddle with the console. There was this huge warehouse, almost completely pitch black except for these glowy red lines going up a huge pillar in the middle of it. Maybe the symbol again?

I peer at it through the glass, trying to make out more of it. I... there's a whispering..? I try listen closer to it. What is it saying?

I...

Kate appears at my shoulder. "Max?"

I blink. My hand was up, pressed against the window. I lower it, pulling it close and rubbing the knuckle with my other hand. "Uh, wowzers... What was... Did you...?" I pointed to the window.

She shakes her head. "I didn't see anything, Max." She smiles. "Come on, we're nearly done."

I smile back and follow her over to the console, where Chloe is still fiddling with something. Kate rubs her hands together, almost jumping up and down. I grin, it's so cute how excited she is. Even if it is a weird Unitology thing she's excited about, I'm happy for her.

Chloe suddenly pulls back out of the console with a grin. "And..." She pushes a button on the console.. "Done!"

I scream in shock as every light in the room goes off and the console sparks. I can't see anything, but I can hear Chloe's breathing next to me and that's enough for me to focus on and try to calm my ratatatat-ing heartbeat.

"Uh, Kate. What the fuck just happened?"

"I..." Kate sounds shocked. "I don't know! This wasn't supposed to happen. We've got to get out of here. Now!" The alarm in her voice seems to push Chloe into moving. I can't see her move, but the whirring clang as the door opens again lets me know what she's done.

"Then lets fucking get out of this creepy-ass place, okay?"

There's a few beeps and Chloe's Maintenance RIG lights switch on, blaring like the beacons of Gondor through the darkness around us. Kate and I both work our way over to her, trying not to trip over the pile of wires and electronic shit Chloe left all over the floor.

Reunited, we dash off down the corridor, staying as close together as we can. There's like, maybe ten feet of visibility at most, so we're blind if we get too far from Chloe. I grin. Heh. Now she really is the light of my life.

We must've taken a wrong turn somewhere, because we end up in a cafeteria we didn't see on our way in. There's still no-one around, but the room is trashed. Trays, tables, benches are scattered all over the place. There's... Oh, dog... There's blood all over the walls. I can almost taste the iron in the air, the smell is so strong.

There's a door on either side of us. One is busted, sliding open and closed with crackles and sparks. The other is closed.

We all just stop for a minute, taking all the destruction in.

"What..." Chloe starts, but trails off, mouth open and lost for words. I know the feeling.

I just shake my head. "We've got to get out of here."

She and Kate both nod numbly and we carry on going.

We get halfway across the room, stopping instantly when a klaxon sound blares across the room as the station intercom crackles into life.

We stare up at the little speaker mounted up towards the ceiling. "Uh... This is Director Jetson." He sighs, and a round of gunfire goes off in the background. "I'm declaring a code black emergency under protocol..." There's another round of gunfire and the intercom crackles with static. "...uck this corporate bullshit. Listen to me. These things, whatever they are... shoot for the limbs. Shooting the head doesn't seem to work." There's a howl and screaming from the intercom. "...od, they're here! They're he..!" Another round of gunfire. "..ill it! Kill it!"

The intercom goes dead.

We all stare up at it.

Well, shit.

Kate immediately bolts across the room for the other door. She's out of the room before me and Chloe can even blink. "Kate!" I shout, running out after her. "We've got to stick..." I stop instantly and Chloe thuds into my back with a muffled "Whatthefuck!"

I turn and hiss "Shutupshutup!"

There are two... things in the room with us and I know instantly that they're the cause of whatever happened in the other room.

They're just... They're just... Fuuuuck. Just looking at them scares the crap out of me, so I do what I always do when I'm scared. I retreat from the situation and look at it like I'm staging a picture. All professionalism and detachment. The world through a lens.

Okay, I can do this. Background first, then the subject.

I take a look around the room. There's almost nothing in here. Luckily, the walls seem to be clean. Or, cleaner than the last room, anyway. The furniture has been ripped up and pushed against one wall.

I take a deep breath.

Now onto the subjects.

Whatever they are, they're not human. They're tall and do look vaguely like people, they're even wearing scraps of clothes, but they're... not. Lame finish, I know, but it's the best I've got. They've got the same sort of shape as us, but... it definitely wasn't human. Instead of arms, it had long blades, like scythes, extending up from the shoulders. Its real arms were folded in, fused to the torso.

The blade-arms were covered in blood.

The creatures are hunched and shakily standing over by one end of the room. Both of them are facing away from us, towards an open doorway there, so I can't see their faces. They're both growling quietly.

And Kate is about halfway between us and them.

Chloe and I share a look. I can see the gears whirring behind her eyes as she tries to think through everything. She's not panicking though. I still don't know what happened to Chloe while I was away at College, but whatever it was, she's using it to keep her shit together now. She starts suddenly, and points back to the monsters.

I turn and look back at them. They still haven't moved, but Kate... She's starting to edge away slowly from the monsters, step by step. Chloe elbows me and points. There's something on the floor, right in her path. It's so dark, I can't even see whatever it is, just a sort of red-lit outline illuminated by the emergency lighting. Shit. Kate is still staring at the monstrous things, she's going to trip on the thing!

Without thinking, I start to creep forward. I've got to stop her, warn her, do _something!_

A sudden shrill scream echoes around the room. The two creatures immediately roar and charge... in the other direction! They head through the door on the opposite side of the room, hunting whatever poor soul was screaming before. I shudder and push the thought out of my head. Right now, me, Chloe and Kate are the priority.

I rush forward and grab Kate, stopping her from tripping, and we run out the other door from the room, ending up at a crossroads. I turn to Kate. "Which way?"

She checks her map again and points. "That way."

I nod. "Right. We've got to be close to getting out, right?"

She returns my nod. "Uhuh. This'll take us back to the corridor we came in through."

Well. That's convenient. Damnit, Max. Don't look a gift-horse in the mouth, especially when there are monstrous things looking to rip you to pieces and redecorate the walls with your fucking insides!

Ok, so panicking more than I thought. My breathing quickens suddenly and rapid-fire images flick through my head of the blood on the walls, the smell in my nose, those things' arms through my stomach tearing me to... Oh dog, oh dog!

Chloe appears in front of me and grabs my shoulders, shaking me. "Come on, Max. You heard her. We're hella nearly out, right?" That's directed to Kate, who frantically nods. "Yes, yes!"

Chloe looks back at me. "See? We're gonna be fine. So, keep your shit together, 'kay?"

For some reason, that last question pulls me out of it. Chloe was always good at getting to me when I'm like this. I push the images down, determined to ignore them. I can do this. I can do this. I nod. "I'm okay."

Chloe beams. "Hella good. Now, come on!"

We turn and dash down the corridor Kate indicated. There are so many screams around us as those things rip and rend and tear and thrash through everything and everyone they can find. I can barely keep myself from vomiting as we see more and more horrific shit with every step. Everything in my head is just going round and round the one unavoidable fact I'm trying desperately not to think about, numbing myself to everything and just keeping on running.

We're going to die here.

A loud curse from Chloe pulls me back to reality as she suddenly swivels and turns back to the horrors we just left. "Fucking Run!"

The fear and urgency in her voice bypasses everything and I do as she says, barely catching a glance of the horde of monsters that've seen us, or caught our scent or something.

They howl, a sound of pure and endless hunger, then charge after us. We run.

I can hear Chloe swearing behind me, just throwing out a stream of curses. "Fuckfuckfuckshitfuckohgodfuck." Kate is quiet next to me, just concentrating on running from those things.

One foot, then the other, then the other.

You can't be clumsy now, Max. "You trip, you will die" I repeat, over and over in my head.

We ran and ran and ran until we got back to the crossroads. I started to slow down, trying to work out which way to go, but Kate shot past me straight on, so I followed her. She was the one with the map, right?

"Run! We're almost out!" Kate screamed back to us.

I could hear the monsters howling and the thunk-thunk-thunk noise as they charged after us. Chloe was somewhere behind me too, but she was keeping up. And hella more importantly, keeping ahead of those things.

We ran into a large-ish room. This one had a door in each wall, both blocked by hastily arranged furniture, and a massive glass ceiling above us showing the EarthGov logo. Dog, we broke into an EarthGov facility? Wowzers, we're so screwed.

Kate was a little ahead of us, so she made it through the last door first.

We were right on her heels and about to make it, but then the door slammed shut. We ran up, slamming the open button. It flashed orange. Fuck, locked! Chloe pounded on the door. "Kate! The door locked behind you! Kate!"

The door intercom crackled. "One People, One Mind, One Purpose." Oh... shit... "Altman be praised."

We turned around to see three of the bodies in the room with us writhe, with those weird sword-arm things starting to sprout. The other three monsters were still coming too. "Oh, dog..."

That's when I knew this was gonna be a hella bad day...


	2. Going Down

Chapter II: Going Down

* * *

AN:  
Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Apologies for the lack of upload these past couple weeks. I've been the kind of unwell that makes doing anything more than staring dumbly at a television screen utterly unappealing. I'm well again now though, so here's an update!

I watched the reboot of Lost in Space, and the original old one, while I was sick and I've subsequently been in quite a sci-fi mood, hence why this one is being updated finally after a year. :) Gods, I've been doing this for a lot longer than it feels like. Anyway, hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

 **phantom99:  
** Then here ya go. Hope you enjoy.

 **MaxNeverMaxine:  
** Out of curiosity, did you get any of the games?

 **Guest:  
** Hopefully so. :)

* * *

Chloe stared, slackjawed, as the monsters prowled into the room, chittering hungrily at us. "Oh shit, oh shit, Max! What do we do?"

I look at her out the corner of my eye. "What? How would I know? They totally didn't cover this in _photography school!"_

"Well, that's a fucking shitty curriculum!" Chloe yells back.

Oh dog. We're bickering while a horde of monsters are closing in on us...

We're _that_ couple.

I groan as I make that realisation, forgetting just for a second where we are, and it must've acted as some sort of cue for the monster-things as they howl in response and charge for us.

There's no way we can get away from them.

I look over at Chloe standing on the other side of the doorway. I offer her a small smile. "I love you."

She grins back, confident to the end. "Love you too, Dumbass."

And she takes my hand, and we close our eyes, and hope these things will make it quick.

A sudden explosion rocks the entire station (I could feel it in the gravity plating), and the entire room suddenly lurches to the left. The monsters, running on shaky and unbalanced limbs, all immediately unbalance and follow the movement, hitting the floor or the wall, and everything blocking the right side-door slides across the floor, crushing a few of them.

We take a second to stare in shock and hope and horror before Chloe snaps out of it and grabs my hand. "Run!"

We go for the now unblocked door and try get as far as we can before the monsters recovered to come after us again. They seemed to have eyes, but I didn't know if they had ears or if whatever they had instead of ears gave them good hearing or not, but either way I'd be way happier the further away from them we were.

We run down a long corridor, surrounded by the shrieks and screams of all the monsters and dying EarthGov operatives around us. I blot them out of my mind and just concentrate on keeping up with Chloe, as her long legs keep threatening to leave me behind. I know she never would, but I just didn't know if I could keep up with her longer step.

Oh shoot, Monsters. There were more of those things ahead of us, just milling about. So, as Chloe would say, we nope the fuck out of there and take a left, running down another corridor that was identical to the last, except for the lack of monster-things.

We end up at another crossroads, both groups of monster-things far behind us, wondering where the heck to go now. I mean, the base was strictly off-limits to civilians, on pain of shooting, so we had no idea of the layout of the building. We were basically just running until we found a way out.

"Max, I'm telling you, the way out is up there!"

I scoff. "Chloe, I love you, but that's hella freaking wrong. Why would the way out be upstairs? We wanna go down, not up!"

We glare at each other for a second before a howl in the distance shocks us both into movement. "Okay, we're gonna rock paper scissors this."

Chloe nods, and readies her hand.

* * *

"This is a bad, bad idea."

Chloe grins back at me, half terror, half exhilaration. "Stop whining, dude. You lost, and we're going up."

I sigh. "Okay. I trust you."

"That's cool." She shrugs, grinning gleefully as she runs along the corridor ahead of me. "Either way, I won!"

Jeez. She's such a child.

I smile.

We turn around a corner into a two-level room and stumble into a drop in the floor behind some upturned couches that had landed on either side of the incline up to the next part of the room as we spot the EarthGov guards. They're on the upper part of the room, standing about and flinching or whirling every time anything nearby made a loud sound. It would've been funny, if they hadn't been heavily armed jumpy people whose jobs demanded they shoot us on sight.

One of them goes to nudge his buddy, who promptly whirls like the first guy just whispered he wanted to jump him in the shower or something and jams the barrel of the gun into the first guy's throat. "Shuddup! Don't fucking do that, you-!"

He's cut off mid-rant as a series of monster screams echo around us, more and more picking up the call one after the other until we're being serenaded by a cacophony of horrors. The two bickering soldiers both whirl suddenly, aiming their guns at opposite doors just in time to see a half dozen of the monsters stumble into the room. Their eyes narrow on the soldiers, completely missing us hiding in the corner, and they charge forward with another round of howls.

EarthGov troops had very little opposition these days. Most of these men were little more than overly trained security guards. They'd spent their years fighting off occasional raiders and regular drunkards. A phalanx of monsters roaring toward them was something very out of their experience.

They didn't seem happy with this development.

A couple of them wailed in fear, quailing before the monsters charging toward them. They make no move toward their guns. Most of the soldiers did manage to keep it together enough to raise their weapons and fire. They still look as terrified as the wailers, but they pull on whatever training they have to remain useful and present in the situation.

Though, there's one, just one, armed with some kind of pistol, that looks totally calm. This one isn't panicking at all. His voice is cold and controlled in the same way Victoria's sometimes was when an important shareholders meeting was coming up. "Remain alert and united, and we'll survive this."

The way he recited the words made them sound like official doctrine. I didn't know if they were, but if they weren't the man clearly knew how to make his trite slogans sound like rulings from high command.

His aim was damn good too. And he listened to his bosses. Each bullet fired into the joints of each limb, tearing the flesh apart, and several creatures stumbled as their limbs were suddenly absent from their bodies.

The other soldiers were less exacting, putting bullets wherever they could.

The calm man's efforts were not enough, he called for a retreat and the soldiers were quickly pushed out of the room. Chloe and I waited as silently as we could until the screams were distant, then gone, and stood up. Chloe immediately let out a long, deep breath, her upper body just dropping down as she rested her hands on her knees and tried to take yet more. "Woah. That was hella fucking close, Max."

I nod, keeping an eye on the opposite door. "It was. Totally thought we were going to get shot or eaten for a few minutes there."

She giggles quietly, still too breathless to manage a full guffaw, and pulls herself together after a couple of minutes of us staring sappily at one another. We are _so_ that couple.

I hold out my hand and, when she takes mine with an indulgent but agonised groan (Chloe still hated the sappy PDA, handholding and that kinda thing. She, um... had no problem with the _other_ kind of PDA though.), squeeze hers reassuringly. "We're okay. We're going to get out of here Chloe, I promise you."

After a moment, she nods. "Okay. Come on then. Let's get moving. Gotta prove going up was the right decision, don't I?"

I shrug, walking past her towards the other door, taking a peek. The corridor was clear, and it was lined with doors the entire way down, only breaking the pattern for a single turn in either direction. I couldn't see where the soldiers, or the monsters, had gone, but they definitely hadn't stuck around.

I lead the way for the first half, intending to lead the whole way, but Chloe shoved in front of me saying something about going this way being her decision and how she was on a roll. I gave her the traditional response of rolling my eyes, but indulged her. She had been right, after all.

We stop at each turn and peek around the corners, only moving on after we were satisfied they were clear. Seemed like those soldiers had been all that was left of whoever was up here, and now they'd gone the floor was empty.

Empty of living people, anyway. There were a few around who were... not. I came close to throwing up a couple of times, but Chloe quickly kept us moving. But the stench of it always followed us.

It followed us through corridors, through halls, through offices, and through walls (not really. I just liked the rhyme and I'm trying to keep myself from freaking out. Being flippant seems to work. Makes me kind of regret the times I got mad at Chloe for doing it, actually.). The air around us was still, complete silence making the little tip-taps of our footsteps echo around us. We winced, every damn time.

Tip.

Tap.

Tip.

Tap.

Tip.

"Omigodgetdowngetdown!" Chloe suddenly barrels into me, knocking us both into a side office or store-room or something just in time to see a monster go past. It's not one of the usual monsters, though, my mind adroitly observes as I fly backwards in hilariously cartoonish slow-mo. No, this one was bigger. And kind of looked like it'd been set on fire. Maybe it had. I mean, I don't know what these things can survive.

It walks past us slowly, taking long loping steps as it ambles along and I get my first full view of it.

It is... horrific, to say the least. Just looking at it threatens to make my brain try climb out my ears in order to avoid the sight of it. It looks kind of like a pterodactyl, if someone tore its head off and replaced it with tentacles. Its skin was light, almost tan-coloured. Made an oddly pleasant contrast to the dark red of its face tentacles. For serious, where the hell do these things come from? They can't have been hiding on the station, can they?

That feeling of imminent brain GTFO increases when the tentacles somehow... look at us. It looks like a curious puppy, all tilted and nosy. Then, it starts to lope towards us, almost galloping as it collides with the door frame. We immediately back up to the furthest corner from the door, watching in horror as it tries to force its way through.

Chloe growls in anger as it finally gets in, searching around for something to throw or swing at it. It's an office, so the best thing she comes up with is a lamp that shatters on the thing ineffectually.

It prowls closer, the tentacles waving about like antennae on an insect as it maybe tries to find us? It doesn't have eyes, so it's got to see somehow. There's no opportunity to sneak around it, though. It's going to find us, and it's going to...

Oh dog.

"It's okay, Chloe. We tried." I hug her close, and we wait for the end.

Waiting...

Waiting.

Waiting?

My eyes flicker open just in time to see two long streaking cuts appear in the tenta-dactyl monster's wings and the tentacles get ripped away from its body. It flops down to the ground to reveal a man standing behind it, grinning, holding a large knife in one hand and a plasma cutter in the other. He looks up at us, his elated grin never fading. "You two okay?"

We stare blankly at him. Well. That was convenient.

Chloe gets up first, pulling me up after. "Yeah, we're good. Thanks, dude."

He nods. "De nada. I'm Copse. And you are?"

"Chloe. And this is Max." She taps me on the shoulder, then leans in and mutters something reassuring that I didn't really hear and a hurried "Babe, I thought you were supposed to be the polite one. Say something already."

I shake my head, trying to clear the shock, and mumble a quiet "Hi."

Copse grins. "Nice to meet you both. If you wanna get out of here, I'm heading to the hanger bay just around the corner."

Chloe raises an eyebrow. "If?"

He shrugs. "Well, I dunno. Maybe you're of those Unitologist types. My buddy was, he just sort of..." Copse's face goes carefully, deliberately blank. "gave up. When those things came after us." The blank look suddenly disappears and he flashes another bright grin. It doesn't reach his eyes. "Now, I'm all for freedom of religion, so if you're into that, let me know and I'll get out of your hair."

We both very, very emphatically shake our heads. "Nope. Definitely for the living. Yep. Love the living. It's pretty sweet, y'know."

His grin finally reaches his eyes. "Fantastic. Come on, then." After waiting barely a beat to let us pull ourselves together, he's out the door and pacing across the hall to one of the turns we passed. He waits patiently at the corner for a few moments, his head tilted and his eyes do that weird focused-unfocused thing people do when they're trying to concentrate on their ears instead of their eyes.

When he's satisfied that he can't hear anything, meaning there are no monsters around (those things aren't exactly subtle), he takes the corner and strides off down the hallway. We have to dash a little to catch up. He's barely taller than me, but he moves fast.

We take another few corners like that, waiting then dashing then waiting again, before we end up in a moderate-sized hangar. As we walk in, my eye is immediately caught by the high-tech helicopter sitting in the middle of the room. Then, my gaze drifts past that to the carnage of cargo around it. Boxes and lockers and large cargo containers that I assumed had been stacked neatly before were now scattered and upturned and just in messy piles all over the room, making for a neat little obstacle course we'd have to get through to make it to the chopper. Copse turns to us. "I'll meet you there. I've got to toggle the locks and the doors in the back office first."

He's leaving us on our own? I gulp nervously. He must've noticed, because he immediately lights up with another bright grin that doesn't reach his eyes. "Don't worry, Max. We'll be fine. Just keep quiet, and stay calm, and get to the chopper."

As he leaves, Chloe turns to me, her eyes alight with mischief as she smirks, putting on a strong accent. "You heard the guy, Maxie. Get to da choppa."

I roll my eyes. God I hate that movie. Also, it's a shuttle. "Come on, Arnie. Let's do what the man says."

We duck, tuck, and weave through the cargo containers, making our way towards the middle of the room where the 'chopper' stood untouched by the chaos. It wasn't overly large, just a smallish trapezoid-prism cabin with a pair of side engines and another pair at the rear. The small identifier on the front named it as 'Shuttle 36'.

We waited by the small cabinside-door for an agonisingly long time, until the sound of loud and rapid footfalls made us look up just as Copse dashed into view yelling "Get in the shuttle! They're here!" as two monsters, larger versions of the ones we'd seen before, burst through the piles of containers and scattered them everywhere as they roared.

I stare numbly at them as all my mind can do is think 'How did they even get in here? They're literally twice the size of the doorways.'. Not helpful, really, but turns out the photo-staging trick only works when they're not actively charging at us. Chloe, thinking quicker and more on-topic than me, drags me into the shuttle and slams the door shut behind us just as the things reach us.

They slam into the side of the helicopter, shaking the cabin wildly. Chloe manages to land me in a seat just as my mind somehow reintegrates with my current situation. She tumbles past, getting a console to her stomach with enough force to force her to buckle over it.

I could hear Copse muttering to himself in what I think was Spanish as he revved the engines. They roar into life and we start to move forward just as the monsters charge again, and the shuttle rocks to the right as they nearly send us careening into one of the walls. Copse's low Spanish mumbles transition to loud curses in a variety of languages. Somehow, he manages to get the shuttle stabilised and flies us out of the now-open hangar bay doors and into the main sphere of the station.

And away from the monsters. That's the most important part.

* * *

When he's satisfied we're away and safe, Copse taps a few keys to toggle the autopilot protocols and looks back at us. "So... can you two remind me of your names?"

"I'm Max. This is Chloe." I reach up and tap her forearm and she grins down at me.

"How long have the two of you been married?" He tilts his head, smiling amicably.

Chloe frowns. "How the fuck did you know we were married?" She demands, glaring at him suspiciously.

I roll my eyes and raise my hand. "We're wearing rings, Chloe."

She frowns down at her own ring. "Oh, right. Yeah. That."

I chuckle at my adorably confused wifey and turn back to the pilot now staring bemusedly at the two of us. "And you're Copse, right? Is that a surname or your first name?"

"Surname. My first name is Aiden." He swings the chair back around and taps another few keys mid-spin before stopping back when he was facing us again. "Nice to meet you fully, I suppose."

"You too." I nod, trying to think of more awkward conversation to make with the guy. Ugh. There's a reason I stayed a photojournalist rather than going into interviews.

Chloe chimes in after a few moments with a muttered "Thanks for saving our lives."

Copse just shrugs. "No worries. It was on my way out, anyway. What were you two doing in the base, anyhow?"

"We, uh- We work there." Chloe tries.

Copse chuckles, shaking his head. "No you don't. I don't know what you two are, but you're definitely not EarthGov. You're too..." He tilts his head as he mulls over his words. "Positive."

Chloe scoffs. "Positive? You don't know shit, dude."

He shrugs, unoffended. "Maybe not, but I know that you definitely aren't EarthGov. So, why were you there?"

"We- uh..." Chloe and I share a panicked look. He might've saved our lives, but he's still EarthGov. If we told him what we did, that all this might've even been our fault, I... I don't know what he'd do. "There's-"

There's a jolt and the little status-representation of the shuttle on one of the side vidscreens flashes red on both left engines. Copse spins the chair around again, and his hands fly over the keys as he tries to steady us. He swears again, before saying three little words that make my stomach drop faster than we were. "We're going down."


	3. Unitology Sucks

Chapter III: Unitology Sucks

* * *

AN:  
Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Sorry for the delay. My dumbass self decided it would be great to plan out my fics a little more and, attempting to score even more moron-marks, ended up planning a whole bunch of stuff that was difficult for me to write, ignoring the need to help me 'settle back' into the flow of regular updates.

Also, have y'all seen the announcement for this new game 'set in the life is strange universe'? It's not LiS 2 or anything, but it's a pretty decent sounding thing. Apparently from DONTNOD, and coming on June 26th, and for free. It's called 'The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit'. From what I've heard, the company're going for a thematic sequel rather than a direct one: 'Relatable people facing relatable issues... with a twist of the strange'. Although they also say there are some clues to LiS 2's plotline if you're 'clever enough to piece the clues together'. Anyways, if any of you have seen it (go check it out, for those who haven't), what do you think of the announcements and whatnot so far?

This one is more of a transition piece than anything. I needed them to voice a couple of feelings and I needed EarthGov soldiers to feature in all their bullet-shield glory, so here it is. Not much really happens here. It's kind of a useless chapter, but I couldn't think of a better way to do it.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

* * *

Smoke.

Wowzers, there's so much smoke. My throat is _killing_ me! I blink away the tears in my eyes, trying to think through the blaring pain and blazing heat. What the fuck happened? There... there was a shuttle... then, an explosion. Now, there's wreckage.

Okay. We crashed.

Wait.

Heat.

Heat?

We have to get out.

My hands shake as I reach down to the seatbelt holding me to the chair, the only thing that kept me from being tossed about the shuttle like the last pretzel in the tin when we crashed. I unclip it and stagger to my feet, fighting the smoke as I just try to freaking _breathe!_ My throat tried, but it just felt like I was choking.

"Chl - Oh dog, - Chloe!" I couldn't see her in the shuttle, but the smoke was thick enough that I don't know if I could've seen her even if she was still in here. A particularly strong cough wracks my body, and I drop to the ground.

Honestly, right then I wanted nothing more than to just give up and lie there. Everything hurt so much and I couldn't see and there wasn't anything except monsters out there anyway so just why bother?

My self-pitying reverie was cut short by a voice drowning in a sea of whispers. I could barely make it out, but it was so familiar. "Max! Come on, Max! What happened to your spark, Max? You've got to get out!"

And suddenly, it was gone. The voice, the fatalism, I just knew that I needed to get out of here. I needed to survive.

I have no idea how I managed it, but somehow I pushed past the burning in my lungs and the thumping of my heart in my ears and the nonstop fucking coughing and I got the hell out of the wreck.

It felt like the entire station was shaking as I stumbled away and...

Oh. No. That's just my legs.

That feels weird.

They buckle almost as soon as I get out, but I manage to carry myself a few feet more on sheer momentum and willpower so I'm out of the fire. I hit the ground with a clang, spinning at the last minute so I land on my back instead of my front. It hurts, but at least I can still breathe this way. I take a few seconds and a few deep breaths, and I wrench my neck up to look for Chloe and Aiden.

Wherever we were... wherever _I_ was, I was alone. But I wasn't alone for long.

A panel on the front of the shuttle suddenly flew off and two bodies fell out of the resulting hole. I grin, letting my head flop backwards again (Bad decision, I think, as my head clangs against the metal floor and pain shoots through my skull). "Chloe!"

The two bodies quickly scurry over, one going to either side of me. Chloe leans down, planting a concerned kiss on me before asking frantically "Are you okay?"

Copse is more composed, and merely scoops an arm under my shoulders and lifts me to my feet. He lets the support stay for a second, so I can get my bearings, then steps back a pace when I can stand on my own. Guess he's the proper sort, then.

I give Chloe a shaky nod and mutter "I think so." I take a breath, and it goes too deep or was too much at once and I start to cough again. "We don't have time to wait around though. We've got to get going. Where are we, anyway?"

The gravity was noticeably lower. That meant we'd definitely left the inner command zone. The cylinder where all the most important stuff in the station was housed ran right through the centre of the station. I didn't really understand the science, but basically the spin of the station interacted with the gravity plating to make the gravity stronger there than anywhere else. Same with the outer rings. Arcadia was built like one of those old gyroscopes.

Copse rattles off a set of coordinates. At our uncomprehending looks, he clarifies "We're in a residential sector. One of the outermost on the inner sphere."

Booyah. Really freaking awesome I remembered that. They literally only told us all that when we moved in and I haven't used it since.

When the little buzz of victory dies down, I nod. "Okay. So, maybe those things haven't made it here yet?"

Of course, reality had to screw with us for daring to have that level of optimism. A familiar loud, howling scream echoes through the sector as something in the distance explodes.

I sigh. Damnit. "Okay. Where to, Copse?"

He frowns at me. "What?"

"Where are we going? You had to have had a destination in mind when you got us on that thing-" I wave back at the shuttle, now sparking dangerously in addition to being on fire. "So, where were we going?"

"The-"

There's another howl, this time far closer to us.

Copse freezes for a second, then amends whatever he was going to say with "Away from here. Now." He nods to himself. "Come on."

We get the hell out of there. Dog, I did not want to stay around to greet those things when they finally made it.

Maybe we'd get lucky and the shuttle explosion would get them.

* * *

We get quite far, actually. Farther than I expected, anyway. The signs pointing to the edge of the sector were getting more and more common as we closed on the tether to the outer ring. There was a tram there that would take us out.

It'd taken a lot of arguing to get Copse to agree, and even more to guilt Chloe into going after her Step-douche (reminding her that her mom was also out there seemed to do the trick), but we'd all decided on heading out there after a chagrined Copse had admitted he never had a destination in mind other than 'the hell away from those things'.

We run into trouble about halfway there. The monsters had gotten into the zone, and now chaos reigned here. They were everywhere, surrounded by people running and screaming and... and... and dying. I hadn't exactly seen a lot of that before, and I saw more than enough out there.

I just... tried not to think about it.

Chloe was slightly ahead of Copse and I, checking corners and such for any sign of those things. The smoke inhalation had played havok with my tiny lungs and I could barely manage to keep up with them. That meant we'd gone from running to sneaking.

Based on our luck with being subtle, it was mostly just a surprise that it didn't go wrong sooner.

Chloe had vanished around a corner, trying to check out a back alley route we'd aimed for to avoid the main thoroughfare to the tether.

She didn't come back.

"Something's wrong." Copse's eyes narrowed as he focused on the corner.

"No shit something's wrong, Copse." I growl out. He doesn't react to the tone, but it's taking everything in me not to just go charging in to find my wife. If something had happened to her, if one of those things had happened to her, I don't know what I'd do.

He nods, still focused, still alert, and starts to pace towards the corner. I'm hot on his heels the second he moves. "Remember the route back here. If we get separated, we'll meet here as soon as possible."

"Okay."

It's a smart precaution.

We take the corner slowly, first letting Copse take a quick glance out to check it's clear, then moving on. We follow the route Chloe did, somehow. Copse pointed out insignificant details in our surroundings that apparently indicated a trail, and we followed along until he stopped us, grinning. "We're close. See here? Footprints in the blood."

"How do you even know those're hers?"

Not that I wasn't desperate for any clue to where Chloe was, but I just didn't see it. There were millions of people on this station, and hundreds of thousands in this zone alone, they could be anyone's footprints.

He rattles off some things I don't understand, decay, tread, drying, all sorts. Basically, they _could_ be anyone's footprints, but they were probably hers. We kept on going, following even more arcane little clues he couldn't make me see. Dog, I was completely useless, dependent entirely on this stranger to find my wife.

Please be okay, Chloe. Fuck, please be okay.

We take another corner, ducking aside when a flock of the things screech past us. Luckily, they don't notice us, and we keep going. We barely ran into anyone the whole way, though we could still hear faint screaming from the zone around us. And, just when I was starting to lose hope, we found her.

Copse had stopped, suddenly intent. He waved his hand at me, fingers twirling through some probably-military hand code. When I shrugged uselessly at him, he mouthed "She's in there." and waved a hand at a nearby building. The front was marked with some gaudy neon sign saying 'Bitz n Pieces'. Ah. A tech shop.

I immediately bolted for the door. Chloe was really in there! And so were three of those things, the wobbly walking ones with sword-arms. They were just milling around, like the ones we'd seen in the base. As I went cold, taking in the image, I saw her. She was crouched behind an upturned piece of display stand, one that was embedded several inches into the steel floor, staring at me with a shocked and terrifingly worried expression.

The three monsters looked up at me, their heads tilting like a curious dog as they observed me. If they felt emotion, and I had no idea if they did, I would've said they were delighted. The closest one howls, a lone sound of pure rage until it was joined by the calls of the other two.

Before I knew it, Chloe was racing towards me yelling "Run!". She grabbed me, and my legs suddenly leapt into action as we dashed for the door, three hungry monsters on our heels. Copse, to his credit, barely blinked as we burst out, simply running alongsided us along the promenade.

Somehow, we managed to stay ahead of them, dodging into alleyways and around obstacles, Copse occasionally blasting at one that got too close. All I could think about was the regrouping point we'd planned. We had to get there. We had to get away.

We ran, hyperaware of the floor beneath us, knowing that if we slipped, if we faltered in anyway, made a single misstep, then it could be our last. I could feel my heart pumping as we ran. Badumph. Badumph. These things awoke something visceral within us, something... primal. Like a fear of the dark, they blasted away at everything in our heads until only they were left. Until all that mattered was getting away.

Until I made that misstep. My foot slipped on something, I had no idea what, still don't, really, but I went down. Chloe, dog, Chloe immediately turned round and ran back to me. She ignored all those things... for me. Heh. And she used to call herself weak.

The monsters came knocking on our door, feet stamping and mouths writhing as they howled and screamed and roared. The monsters came at us, not one-by-one, but in a fucking horde.

Five shots rang out, and the creatures were... disarmed, hovering with a faint bluish glow and surrounded by their long flesh-blade arms. Chloe stared up at them for a second, before she just laughed. "Stasis. Why didn't I think of that shit?" As her hand reaches up to touch the stasis unit all maintenance suits came with, a voice stopped the motion halfway through.

"Identify." The Soldier's voice was calm, no-nonsense. Not like the ones in the base. This group had had time to get used to the situation, they'd accepted the shitstorm that was happening and reacted as best they knew how.

This couldn't be how it ended. Avoiding those things, managing to stay alive this long, and to get so close to Joyce. This couldn't...

"Security Code Tertiary Gamma 3 Apple Fortune 2 12. Acknowledge." Copse stood over us, glaring the soldier down, and to our surprise, the soldier... blinked.

"Repeat code."

When Copse rattled off whatever that code was again, the soldier's entire demeanour changed. Where once was suspicion and aggression was now complete cooperation. Wowzers, that was close. They recognise their own, I guess. I wonder what the security code meant. It was really long. Is that good?

A few more armoured EarthGov troopers appear from the shadows, and the soldier relays whatever the code entitled us to, ordering them to help us out. They skitter forward, one of them planting one meaty paw on my shoulder and hefting me to my feet like I weigh nothing at all.

Their sergeant, full of typical EarthGov arrogance, waves to a couple of soldiers: the one behind us, and another standing by Copse. "Keep an eye on the civilians. We're heading back to the safehouse." He didn't even look at us.

Before I can even get my crap together, Chloe's arms wrap tightly around me.

I smile, and hug her back. It was a nice little moment of normality in the middle of all... this. I mean, I couldn't really breathe she was hugging me so tight, but hey. I can deal. "We're okay, Chlo. We're okay." I mutter, trying to be reassuring.

She chuckles, but it's a little choked so clearly I wasn't entirely successful with the reassuring thing. Just like always, I guess "I was so worried, dude."

We stand there for a few seconds, in each others arms, before our nice little moment is interrupted by an irritated cough from one of the soldiers assigned to look after us. "We need to get moving."

I could've fucking growled. I mean, he had a point. Not exactly the right time or place, but wowzers. Fuck him for interrupting. But, we pull apart, Chloe bitching even louder than I was thinking of doing, and go stick with our escorts. They take us away from the tether and the group heads deeper back into the zone. I make damn sure to remember the route, just in case. EarthGov did have a certain reputation and, as grateful as I was, I wasn't going to stop being careful.

The journey was so much easier, being surrounded by heavily armed and alert soldiers. Especially ones that knew what they were doing. Whenever a monster came into view, they were de-armed in seconds and stomped into the ground where they fell, which was so gross. Their bodies basically exploded when they were crushed, turning their insides into outsides.

We left a long trail behind us.

The safehouse was a looming structure, one of the older buildings in this section that stood at the head of a t-junction. The two soldiers guiding us lead us up to the door, and the sergeant slammed a fist into it. "Tango Three Eleven! Anyone in?"

No answer.

He grunts, then waves a couple of soldiers over. They let go of their guns, letting them hang from the straps around their necks, and reach down to pull it open. The power must've been out for the door to go non-functional. They, with some effort, manage to drag it open.

The sergeant sends a few in with orders to check it out, waiting patiently until they both call out that the building was clear. He sighs in relief. The first sign of humanity the sergeant has shown.

We all head in, and as the door closes behind us, I know that we're finally safe.

"For now."

"Damn it, Chloe!"

* * *

"Here. It's rations." A soldier appears above where we're sat, holding out a couple of packet bars.

I smile, and take them gratefully. "Thanks."

When Chloe says nothing, I elbow her, motioning to him with my head. Still nothing, so I mouth. "Say thank you."

Chloe grunts. "Thanks."

I shrug up at the soldier in a 'what can you do' sort of way. He just nods irritably and heads off. How rude.

Chloe flips the bird at his back before he leaves the room.

I chuckle, and halfheartedly admonish her. "Chloe..."

She shrugs. "What? He was an asshole."

"True, but they saved our lives. That earns them a little... benefit of the doubt, right?"

Chloe says nothing.

"Riiight?"

She shrugs. "Kind of over giving people the benefit of the doubt right now, Max." There's a bitterness to her voice I haven't heard since.. well. Since the last time I fucked up and mentioned Rachel, actually. She tacks on, almost as an afterthought, but still sincere in that way only Chloe at her most open could manage. "Other than you, obviously."

I lean into her side, nestling closer to her body heat.

What? It was cold!

And I liked to snuggle.

"You're still thinking about what happened with Kate, huh?" Chloe nods, so I continue. "I can't believe she just left us like that."

Chloe snorts. "She's a Unitologist, Max. Her first loyalty was always gonna be to that fucked up cult of hers. I'm just hella shocked she didn't do it sooner."

I sit up. "Chloe! She's our friend! Maybe something happened, maybe it wasn't her! We didn't actually see her close the door, y'know."

She grunts, very noncommittal. She's... definitely just humouring me.

I let it slide, for now, and lean back into her. "What do you think we should do now?"

"Well, we decided we were gonna go after my mom, right?"

"Right."

"But..." Her lips crease irritably. "Copse seems to want to stick with these guys. And they do have all the guns. Maybe they'd help us get to my mom?"

We both snort at that.

"Sure, and maybe Victoria will finally stop asking to help you get transferred."

Chloe stays silent for a moment. "Do you think they're okay? Vicky and Taylor, I mean." She colours, noticing what that sounds like. It's adorable. "Not that I give a shit, I just know you care 'bout them."

I shrug. "I don't know, Chloe. I hope so. But there's nothing we can do to help them now, and getting to your mom is more important."

We let it go at that, and just sit in silence together; half just enjoying each others company and the fact that we're still alive, half simply not knowing what to say. We were used to it. Comfortable silences were common when you were as awkward as we were.

* * *

A sudden snarl and a panicked yell pull us out of whatever daze the calm had left us in, and we get to our feet as quickly as our sluggish limbs would let us. "What was that?"

Another scream, and another snarl. "They're coming from downstairs." We dash out of the room and over to the banister at the top of the stairs down to the ground floor (AN1). The soldiers were fighting a... a thing. It was one of the sword-armed monsters, but bigger than the ones we'd seen before. The normal (heh, 'normal') ones had paler skin, whereas this one was almost blackened. It looked like it had strode through a fire and barely been bothered, roaring and slashing away at soldier's both left and right.

The EarthGov squad seems to all be out here, concentrating their fire on the creature and trying to stay the fuck out of its way as best they can. Their concentration proves to be bad for them as the coverings on the windows start to buckle and yet more of the monsters, these ones only the regular kind, pour through into the main hall.

A soldier suddenly yells as he steps forward out of cover, he must've snapped from the stress to do something that freaking dumb, just blasting off burst after burst from his gun. "For fuck's sake, why won't you die?!"

The monsters seem unimpressed. Every time a bullet hits, they spin, and a little momentum is lost, but they keep coming. These ones, with their burnt-looking flesh and their wicked-looking blades, are far stronger than any we've seen before.

The soldiers line quickly was overcome by the things, and they drowned in the tide of flesh and blood. I saw one soldier, the one who'd offered us food, with a claw around his throat as his chest was torn apart and...

Oh, fuck. Oh fuck, no.

And he turned. His legs became longer, and his face contorted in a horrific expression of pain and hunger, and his arms reformed into long, sharp, familiar blades.

These... these things... they're... they're...

"These fucking things are human?! What the fuck?!"

Chloe, eloquent as ever, reaches the point far before I do. Her shouts also attract the attention of the newly turned monster, and it howls before charging in our direction. That's when we notice, between the monsters, were... people. Human people. They were armed, but not armoured, though that didn't seem to matter, and immediately opened fire on the EarthGov soldiers. Their laughter was... manic, almost macabre. They were clearly insane, and they were willing to kill.

The platoon was getting ripped apart, and the entire main floor was... chaos. Sheer, utter, bloody chaos.

Chloe grabbed my hand. "Max, we've gotta get out of here. Now!"

I nod. "Y-yes. We really do." A thought occurs. "Crap! Where's Copse? We can't leave him!"

Chloe pulls me away from the banister and down the stairs, staying away from the fight in the middle of the room. "Sure we can. Fuck that guy. He'll be fine with his EarthGov buddies."

We dodge out of the main room, heading for one of the side chambers. Neither of us knew any other exits, and just wandering around until we found one wasn't an option, so we'd have to circle around the charnel-house inside. We skitter across the room, opting for speed over stealth, but trying to stay unnoticed all the same.

Out the corner of my eye, I notice Chloe holding out a plasma cutter in front of her, the front section sitting in horizontal setting. "Where did you get that?" I hiss.

"Copse gave me it. Thought one of us should be armed, as well as him." Her shrug turns amused as she grins teasingly at me. "And since you couldn't hit the side of the station with an automated missile, I took it."

I consider protesting, but she's totally right. Dog, I'm a journalist, not a soldier.

The side rooms stay clear, and we make it to one just by the entrance in no time at all. Chloe pokes her head out, as subtly as she can manage, immediately whipping back when she sees whatever is in the foyer. "People. There's fuckin' people in there!"

"Like, EarthGov soldiers?" I ask hopefully. Maybe we can get out!

She shakes her head. "No, like the crazy fuckers who were fighting with the monster things. Well," She amends. "There are some soldiers, but I'm hella sure corpses aren't gonna be fucking helpful right now."

Oh.

We sit there in silence, trying to work out how to get past these assholes. When more shots come from the next room, we flinch hard and instinctively dodge away from the door. Nothing comes through, so we look kind of dumb, but better safe than sorry.

After a few moments, the door eases open, and the sounds of battle from the main room suddenly become louder. A familiar head of blond hair pokes through. "Hello again. We should probably be leaving."

I sigh thankfully. "Copse. The people in there are..."

"Dead?" He smiles. "Yes. They are. Not my doing though. Just a happy coincidence." He pulls the door open a little wider. "Shall we?"

Chloe grins. "Fuck yeah. Let's blow this popsicle stand."

Both of us turn to look at her as we head out. "This what?"

She tilts her head. "Popsicle stand..? Y'know. Like the frozen stick things?"

I open my mouth to reply when my foot suddenly hits a body with an almost squelchy thud. I shudder, and hesitantly look down. Yep. Ew. And, oh... what I thought was just regular scraps of clothing was a uniform. It had symbols stitched into it, oddly familiar but not something I recognised. Except one. In the middle of the chest, and on each forearm, were symbols of the Church of Unitology.

"They're Unitologists!"

Chloe groans. "Of-fucking-course they are. These fuckers can't just leave shit alone. First they lock us in with monsters, now they're helping the monsters kill people. Hella crazy fucking bastard assholes and their-" The helmet of Chloe's maintenance suit suddenly closes, muffling the rest of her tirade. Thankfully.

Her hands immediately go up to try and pull the helmet back, trigger one of the manual releases that came standard in most suits these days, but apparently she was stuck for now. She quickly gives up, letting her hands fall back to her side. I couldn't hear her grumble, but her shoulders slump slightly, and her head drops. I knew my wife, and she was probably swearing up a storm in there.

I give her a grin and we head out of the safehouse.

The road outside was totally clear, all the monsters in the area seemed to have already gotten in the building. So, we got the fuck away. Copse turns to us the moment we're clear, tilting his head. "Do you remember how to get back to the tether?"

I grin. Remembering the route did turn out to be useful after all.

We're about three streets along the route when a loud, echoing voice suddenly sounds throughout the zone. "Brothers and sisters. The age of man is ending. Too many have taken, and not given fairly back. Do not fear for your future, for the prophet Michael Altman, and the Black Marker, have a plan. A plan that will uplift us from our misery, from our hellish lives, and will unite us in a glorious whole. Make us whole. Unity will be our salvation. Throw off the chains of our corrupt government and join us. One People. One Mind. One Purpose. Praise Altman. Praise the Great Marker."

Every screen around us is playing the message, almost drowning our the near-constant screaming and howling around us. Almost. I don't recognise the man on the screen, but his voice is... intelligent. Articulate. I'd have hired him for a presenting job at the station in a heartbeat.

Copse glares at the screens, before just shaking his head. "We've got to keep moving. Your family might be in danger."

Chloe nods, looking over at me. "Shit, do you think maybe they're already..." She says it like it never occurred to her.

I shake my head though. It hadn't really occurred to me either. "No, no. Joyce has David. He'll keep her safe."

I hope.

* * *

AN1 - First floor to you Americans. Honestly, I'm not sure which system I prefer, really. Because the ground floor is the first floor, if you think about it.


	4. Never Split the Party

Chapter IV: Never Split the Party

* * *

AN:  
Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Apologies for the near-month delay. It's a long story and kind of pointless to tell, so I'm just going to leave it at the apology. Going to try to get actually on schedule though from now on. I'm thinking I'm going to go onto a one-chapter upload per week thing to get into the habit of writing to a weekly schedule then amp it back up to two (or hopefully more, as I'm getting many stories now and I wanna get some of these muthas moving) when I get the hang of that again.

This one was a lil' bit more difficult to write than I thought. I had a plan, it was only going to be a short chapter, but then shit happened. That entire sequence on the tram was completely unplanned. I was just gonna have 'em hop on then hop off. Also, maybe I kind of segued into ChloeVoice a little in a few places here. Seriously though, this was supposed to be about a fifth the length it ended up being. Jfc, me.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

 **Fanfictionreader200:  
**

Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. Muahahaha. :)

* * *

"Son of a biscuit, I- Why isn't this coming... Oh, jeez..."

"Max, Max! This thing isn't budging and I - no fucking way, dude! Keep that thing away from me or I'll use it to cut off your fucking balls!"

Copse puts down the plasma cutter.

Chloe drops her hand and turns back to me. "Look, it's fine, Maxie. I'm stuck in here for now. We can get me out when we're somewhere safe and not in the middle of a fucking CommShack."

She maybe had a point. The entire storefront was ripped off, and if anyone walked more than two steps in we would be in full view. But there was still an issue. "Chloe, those suits are made for vacuum. You're completely airtight-"

"Yeah I am."

I tilt my head in confusion. "What?"

I couldn't see her face, but somehow the blue headlights flickered in a way that made her look sheepish. "I have no fucking clue. I just heard 'tight'."

I grin. "You're an idiot, Chloe Price."

She shrugs. "Yeah, well. Somehow I make it work with my hella badass-ness. Right?"

I nod, giving her an indulgent smile. "Right. So, you're stuck in there, and you're running on a limited oxygen supply, and we can't get you out, and-"

Chloe rolls her eyes. Again, I can't see her face, but when you've been together for a decade you get to know each other pretty well and - don't tell Chloe I said this - my wife is pretty predictable with the eyerolls. She finishes my sentence without hesitation "and if I run out of oxygen my scrubbers will keep taking the CO2 outta my air and I'll get hypoxic and die. I know, Max. I was just tryin' to keep shit light. Not much we can do about it right now."

I reach out a hand and squeeze hers through the glove. "Maybe we'll run into Valleau and you can finally punch him out that airlock."

She lets the conversation drift into a comfortable quiet, but I pull her up before she can get into another funk. "Come on then. The quicker we get somewhere safe, the quicker we can get you out of there. David still has those tools, right?"

"Only tiny ones. After all-"

"He is a tiny tool." We say together, laughing at the memories. It was weird, laughing over something that'd caused us both so much pain in the past, but it was our damn weird.

I drag Chloe over to Copse's spot by the door, approaching as quietly as we could. "Is it clear?"

He nods. "Yes. Still clear out." He doesn't look at us, his eyes keenly sweeping the area, alert for any threat. It's pretty cool. I guess you've gotta be pretty keen and alert to be a pilot, sitting in a flying metal box that, if anything went wrong, could kill you at any second.

"Great. We need to get out of here. Now."

He raises an eyebrow at my... um... brusque tone, but he quickly accedes after I explain the whole 'my wife is at risk of dying and I will literally rip out your throat without a second thought if you try to stop me' thing.

Smart man.

He pokes his head out of the store, quietly scouting around for monsters. When he nods, Chloe and I start to follow him.

He leads us down unfamiliar paths at first, and I have no idea how he knows his way around this random residential zone (I'm tempted to ask if he lives here but, when I try to break the silence we'd fallen into, I find that I just... can't.), but we move quickly and quietly across the zone. He hesitates occasionally, surveying the area before nodding to himself and moving on, but otherwise we make very good time.

Eventually, we end up in familiar ground. We're about two-thirds the way along the route we took last time, where the soldiers first found us. Told you memorising it would come in useful.

I start to push forward a little more, closing the gap between us and Copse. The look he gives me clearly says he's not happy, but fuck it. I need to get Chloe to her parent's ASAP.

We're a little way from where we'd been found when Copse suddenly holds up a hand: Stop. We immediately freeze and stare in horror as a pack of monsters stroll into view, joining another group loudly snacking on what I'm very carefully not thinking of as people.

Copse moves his hand, just barely, and points to an alleyway to the right. It's... maybe ten feet away. Probably a little under. He turns his head, still moving as little and as slowly as possible, and mouths "Go Slow."

Since Chloe can't roll her eyes at him right now, I do it for her. Of course we're going slow. We do not want to make any loud noises right now.

I go first - since Chloe is in a protective suit and Copse has military training, I'm totally the weak link here - and quietly pace to the alley. I make it without much bother.

Chloe goes next, and when her boots clunk loudly against the metal ground, all three of us freeze in grimaces as we desperately hope they didn't hear her.

One second passes.

Two seconds.

Three.

...

We're about to sigh in relief when an ear-splitting scream of hunger echoes through the air around us. The pack all raise their heads, like wolves or dogs, and answer. Chloe just bolts for me, feet slamming into the ground, and Copse spins while raising his gun.

They're... they're gone. The pack had just... vanished, leaving the scraps of their meal scattered across the ground (hngggh-ulp).

Copse is spinning, his face contorted in paranoid horror as whatever cogs are in his head go spinning uselessly like the wheels on an overturned bicycle.

He scurries over to us, keeping his eyes sweeping across our surroundings, looking for any sign of where those things had gone, and if they were coming back.

We wait quietly, hoping and wondering. Where did they go? I mean, I hadn't seen them give up before. Not once. So, why did they give up on us?

It felt even more terrifying than when they screamed. At least then we knew where they were, and where we needed to run to to get away from them. The suspense was the worst, here. My hands were sweaty, I could hear my heart beating in my ears. It was pretty much all I could hear, all the screaming and yelling just melting away until the air sung with the staccato beats of my panicked heartbeat.

Dog, it... it _sucked._

Eventually though, after what felt like dogdamn aeons of this... tension, Copse guided us out onto the street again. We took it slow, listening for any sign of those things coming back, but... nothing.

We made it through to the tram with no bother, which was honestly worse than if we'd found something.

The monsters just stood around quietly when they weren't chasing someone, so they could be all around us and we'd never have any idea. Until we ran into them. Until we made a sound. Then, they'd swarm us and we'd be completely surrounded, with nowhere to run.

The tram station loomed over us, the shadows cast by the exterior lights on the tether swaying with the station's spin. We creep up to the stair leading to the main platform, and Copse holds out a hand for us to stop. We do, and he just... waits. Patiently, quietly, waiting, just hoping that we'd survive. The seconds creep by, and the familiar terror settles into my stomach for the long haul.

He heads up the stairs, gun held out in front of him. He held it steady, calm by virtue of whatever military discipline EarthGov pilots had.

We watched with baited breath as he disappeared into the station, one beat, then two, and "Clear. Come on up."

We dart up the stairs after him, moving into a largish reception area. Traditional-looking place with a main desk flanked by long rows of waiting-benches and a door to the platform at the far end. It stood untouched by the chaos outside: apparently nobody thought of moving in or out from the rings. Copse listens at the next door, then signals clear again. There's a single tram left on the platform, lights off and doors closed. It's sharp angles and shiny metal surfaces make a striking image imposed over the blackness of space outside the observation windows.

Chloe taps on the glass (heavily reinforced to survive vacuum) and grins. "Back near the Stars, huh Max?"

I chuckle. "From the Stars we came, and to the Stars we return..."

Chloe beams (#light jokes) and throws an arm over my shoulder. "There's the little beat poet I married."

"Still average height, Chloe."

"Still shorter than me, shortstack."

"But not-"

"Ahem."

I'd never heard anyone actually say 'ahem' before, but somehow Copse managed it. He was standing at the corner of our vision like an irritated librarian, arms crossed in front of him and foot tapping on the floor. Back in school, I probably would've flushed at being caught bantering like that. Now, I just glare right back. "You need something, Copse?"

Still let Chloe do the talking, though.

He snorts. "Need you to stop bein' cute and come help me with this. Max, if you could keep an eye on the door?"

Chloe turns back to me, eyes questioning. I shrug off her concern with a little nod. And a shrug. "Sure."

So, Chloe goes over to join him by the station console, and I stick to the door. Those things weren't exactly quiet, but we couldn't afford to take any chances. One misstep and it'd all go to our heads. Until they chopped them off, anyway.

Every so often, I spare a glance over my shoulder at Chloe. I couldn't help it, there was something so... appealing about her when she was working. Sleeves rolled up (when she actually had sleeves, anyway), tongue quirked out of her mouth, and her eyes completely intent on whatever she was working on. Admittedly the headgear and maintenance suit made seeing that harder, but I could still picture it. Again, together for ten years, y'all.

We stay like this for about... ten minutes or so, maybe fifteen, before Chloe suddenly yells out "Fuck yeah! We-"

Copse promptly claps his hand over her mouth, before remembering that she was wearing a suit and thus putting his hand over her mouth (actually a glowy light in her mouth region) was useless. The sudden shock of being slapped in the face did shock her into silence for a moment though, before she whirls angrily on him and yells "What the fuck, dude?"

He growls. "Stay quiet. Noise attracts those things, remember?"

"Oh." Chloe scraped her foot on the ground, like a sheepish child. Even in the suit, it was 'hella cute'. "Sorry."

Copse scowls, tapping a few controls on the panel. Chloe quickly gets bored of whatever he's doing wrong and nudges him aside. "Let me, dude. You're gonna break some shit if you keep doing that."

Copse steps obediently back, then wanders over to me. "Your wife is very obstinate."

I chuckle. "She really is. One of the reasons I married her."

He snorts again, clearly not believing me, and turns to look out the door. Nothing had turned up, but hey, I could use the extra eyes. We stand there in silence, just listening to the screams and beeps and whirrs from around us (along with Chloe cursing lightly in the background, then catching herself and cursing again when she kept doing it. I put a ring on that, folks. Dog, I love my wife). It's amazing what you can get used to. The screaming, I mean. Not the beeping and whirring and so on. That was normal.

Wowzers.

It'd only been a few hours and I was already used to the constant noise of people being... being... hunted. I'm not sure what's more fucked up about that, me, or the situation we're in.

The screams get louder.

I flinch.

Okay, situation. Definitely the situation. I get it, already. Dog, that's the last time I dare fate.

"Fucking finally! I've got it!"

Chloe's triumphant yell echoes through the station like music. Music that was quickly accompanied by the station on many, many alarms.

Copse curses louder than all of Chloe's yelling put together and rushes over to her. "Shit. You tripped the Exit Breach Protocol."

"The what?"

He doesn't respond for a minute, so I ask again.

"What are you talking about, Copse?"

He still doesn't answer, not verbally, anyway. He just points towards the window.

The entire thing was whirring like a blast door.

Oh fuck.

We were about to be launched into space.

Oh, and the vents started rattling as screaming monsters tried to force their way in to the loud room full of flashing lights and panicky yelling human beings. The screaming was coming from all around us so I really couldn't decide direction, but I thought they might be coming in the main doors as well.

I began to stare as one of the vents cracked open to reveal, not the usual blade-arm monster, but something small and lean and covered in fucking tentacles.

Wowzers. I just stared.

Ew.

Copse immediately moved over to the tramcar and started poring over it for any way in.

I didn't have much hope for that though, the entire place was switched off and locked down when we came in. The tram was probably- oh, he's climbing through the roof.

He drops down from the maintenance hatch and dashes for the driver console, tapping a key.

The doors immediately slide open.

Okay, so. That was convenient. Panic over, I guess.

"Run, Max!"

Panic not over! Panic totally not over! My brain screams as two different vents explode inwards in a cloud of metal shards and angry monster-things that promptly launch themselves in our direction with a shriek of fury and hunger and-

Chloe throws me into the tram.

I land in a heap, sliding up against the opposite side door.

Ow.

A sudden scream pulls me out of my pained moaning haze and I scramble to my feet to go check on my dumbass life-saving wife.

Oh.

Wow.

That's...

Hot.

Chloe was standing in the doorway, feet spread, with the plasma cutter raised and blasting away at the literal horde of monsters charging in our direction.

If her hair wasn't trapped in that suit with the rest of her, I was pretty sure it'd be fluttering in the wind right now.

Wait. Wind?

Oh, yeah. The station is about to unseal and launch the tram out to the rings. Meaning this room is about to lose oxygen.

Crap.

"Chloe, get in here! The doors are about to-"

The tram rattles and starts to move, the telltale pneumatic hiss of the engine joining the telltale deadly hiss of oxygen being removed from the room. The doors to outside were finally opening.

And the tram doors were closing.

Oh dog.

Chloe, standing strong and confident against the tide of monsters, suddenly loses her feet and goes screaming out into space, dragged by the escaping air, still surrounded by that horde of monsters. She screams, I scream, the monsters scream. It's a thing.

I know I can't go outside, but that doesn't stop me from instinctively moving to the door. I have to stop myself, steady my hands (I try to steady my breathing as well, but that was never going to happen), and sprint to Copse in the front cab. "Copse! We've gotta stop, we need to-"

The cold bastard doesn't even bother looking up from the console. "We can't, Max. I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do. We can't go out there, and if we open the doors to let her in, we die."

I growl. "Then we'll do something else, we'll find a way, there has to be-"

"No. There isn't." He's direct. Unyielding. Cold. There wasn't a trace of the wry amusement we'd seen when we first met. Just hardened military gruffness. "I'm sorry, but there isn't. And I've got to concentrate on this, or we're going to die too."

I pull his gun. "N-no. We're going to get her. Now!"

He turns, very slowly, hands in the air. "Don't do anything stupid, Max." His voice is that annoying calm, measured tone that people always use with people that they think are crazy. "I'm pretty sure you can't drive a tram."

I shrug. "Sure I can. Forward, back, switch on the autopilot. How hard can it be? My wife is out there, you fucking bastard." I was angry, and kinda drunk on it, but even I knew that last insult fell a little flat. I don't swear very much, and I'm really not good at it.

He smirks, confidence never fading, and just says simply "Then shoot me. Because there's nothing I can do."

I pull the trigger.

Copse swears, louder and better than me, when the little bolt of plasma flies past him and smashes into the front window. I chuckle at his panic and switch my aim back to him. He just stares at the window, confused that we haven't also been sucked into space. "Reinforced glass. So people can't do that. Just proving what I'm willing to do for Chloe."

He just glares.

"Okay, fine. Let me think..."

Chloe glides past the window, shooting wildly at the cloud of monsters surrounding her. It's terrifying and beautiful in equal measure. Like a deadly ballet, in three dimensions, with guns and swords. (AN: And boy, does THAT sound like a great concept for an anime or what? :D).

I let him think, never letting the gun meander away from his chest.

Suddenly, he whirls and starts to tap keys. I catch a few muttered words, like 'airlock' and 'catchers mitt' (whatever that means), and I let him do his thing. I still tap my foot impatiently all the while though. My heart was pounding in my chest, and an endless litany of "I hope she's okay, she'd better be okay, oh dog I need her to be okay" was going round and round in my head, so it was the only thing that kept me distracted and not crying on the floor.

After a few painfully long seconds, he turns back to me. "I have an idea. It's a stretch, but it is literally all I have."

I resist the urge to say I told you so. Dog, I'm starting to sound like Victoria. I feel a faint pang of wonder at how she's doing through all this, and hope that she and Taylor and their kid are okay. "Okay. What is it?"

"We're going to catch her in the back carriage. We can seal us in here, then let her into the back. She can just re-oxygenate the train when we're in the ring-station."

When he sees my sceptical look, he just shrugs. "You wanted an idea. This is it."

He has a point. "What do you need me to do?"

"Give me my gun back and hold on. The lines are going to jolt when I open the doors."

"I'm not giving-"

He just glares. Chloe goes past the window again, still shooting. She's also holding one of the blade arms in her other hand. It's not attached to a monster anymore.

I sigh. "Fine. Here." I hand it over, handle first (AN1).

"Thank you. Now, hold on to something."

I look around the barren cab, full of flat surfaces and important levers. "Hold on to what?"

He looks back at me with a grin, shrugs. "Fair point."

He pulls the lever.

The entire tram jolts wildly from side to side as the atmosphere-controlled carriages vent every last particle of air into space. The buffeting doesn't last long though, luckily. Because Copse was right, I should've held onto something. I think my nose might be broken. Ow.

I swear at him, the asshole, and glare halfheartedly as I paw at my nose. He just scowls and taps a few keys.

Chloe goes past the window yet again. She's lost the gun, and now seems to be wielding some kind of tentacle in addition to the sword-arm. She's firing little bolts of something from the arm at a few more monsters off at a distance from her, while holding off another two with the dismembered arm.

The doors in the rear carriages slide open, and Copse gestures me to the console. "I've activated the comm unit. She should be able to hear you if you press that button. Tell her the plan while I get ready to catch her."

I scurry over and gently push the button. "Hello? Chloe?"

The familiar voice crackles through the intercom, full of wry amusement. "H- fucking back off! - Hey Max. Lovely fucking weather we're having, huh?"

I grin. "Oh wowzers, yes. It's the best. Don't you think it might time to come inside though? I hear there's a storm rolling in."

"Now you mention it, it is hella cold out here. I don't think I got enough juice in the rockets on this thing to get to the ring though." There's a few low beeps as she accesses the readout of whatever onboard diagnostic system that old suit has. "Or enough oxygen. Should probably have lead with that. Shit."

I chuckle. "Not to worry, Chloe. The Caulfield Express will be right there. We left the doors open for you."

"Aww. You think of everything." I watch as she suddenly twists, and the ball of monsters surrounding explodes as she rams through them. She may not have had much fuel left, but she seemed to be using it brilliantly as she swept herself along in our direction. (AN2) Until she screamed past us, desperately trying to reorient herself and slow the hell down. "D-damn it! Fucking piece of sh-aaaaaaa!" She shot off once again, spinning around and around like an out of control rocket. Which she kind of was right now, I guess.

I know it's not really the time to be making jokes, but you try staying calm while your wife is... doing that. I could feel the shaking get worse. Dog. How do people _live_ worrying this much about other people? I have no idea how I did.

At the last second, Chloe caught herself on a maintenance guideline and pivoted around, cutting the thrust on her suit immediately. But, space loves inertia and doesn't brake for anyone, so she kept going round and round the wire like a trapeze artist. Her voice came through the intercom again.

"You spin me right round baby, right round like a record, baby, right rooound."

As my face cracked into a painfully wide grin, I helpfully reminded myself of a few similarly goofy events. Okay. I know I how I live with it now.

Copse facepalmed.

With an abrupt grunt, she launched herself from the line, slamming through the monsters like a footballer. Her voice came through again, this time only a faint mumble about momentums and velocities and other words I had absolutely no idea the meaning of.

Copse and I stared as she floated onward through space toward us. She was almost in, only thirty feet off, when yet another shitty thing happened.

A few of those tentacle monsters (seriously, ew) that Chloe had pissed off by ripping out their tentacles started shooting those little white bolts in her direction. Chloe hadn't noticed, intent on the tram doors.

So, I slammed down a hand on the intercom. "Chloe, watch-"

Two shots hit her.

She went spinning off, screaming in panic through the intercom as her suit was punctured. There were a few moments where my heart was in my mouth, thinking that I was going to watch my wife asphyxiate in front of me, but gradually, the spinning stopped and the bursts of air escaping petered off. Chloe's voice sounded wearier, but proud "H-hey. Hey guys. Sorry about that. Hella fucked up neighbours wanted to borrow some sugar."

Copse and I shared a look. I knew the emotion in his eyes. Disbelief.

Poor thing. He'd get used to it. My wife was a badass.

I tapped the intercom and replied. "No worries, Chlo'. Probably time to get inside though. You'll catch a chill."

She laughed. "Thanks, hippie. See ya in a sec."

With that, she fired the thrusters again, and glided gracefully into the tram. When she got caught in the grav plating's field of effect, she was immediately pulled to the floor.

There was a significant thud. "Ow."

"Chloe? You okay?"

"Yep. All good here. How are you?"

I beamed. "I'm great. We're closing the doors now, so..." An idea popped in my head. "Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle, and have a great day! Thanks for travelling with Caulfield-Copse Rail."

Copse just shook his head, clearly still with no idea how that just worked out. "You two are insane."

"Thank you."

He laughs, not meanly, just disbelievingly. "That wasn't a compliment."

I just shrug. "It might not have been intended as one, but it was a compliment to me."

"And me!" Chloe, never one to be left out, chimes in.

He shakes his head again, muttering something else in what I still thought was Spanish. Then, he pulled himself up and moved past me to the console. "Let's speed up a little before those things come after us. You might not be able to shoot through the glass, but lets not risk them smashing through it instead."

The tram lurches forward, leaving the monsters drifting aimlessly out in the black, and before we know it we're safely docked and the observation windows are sealing shut behind us. We've made it to the outer rings.

I quickly unseal the back carriages and dash out of the cab. Chloe stumbles out of the carriages at the same time, and we come together for an embrace. Clutching the faceless maintenance suit was a little uncomfortable, but knowing my wife was in there helped.

But Copse had to come along and ruin it. "We need to get moving."

He strides past us, gun in hand, to the station exit. The main wait area was... fucked. Blood stained the floors and walls (and ceilings, what the fuck?) and limbs and pieces of people and monsters were scattered all over. I hold back a retch and fall back into the detached photo-hound mode as Chloe audibly vomits in her helmet.

Copse doesn't seem bothered, striding straight through to the outer door. I turn to check on Chloe, laying a comforting (attempt-comforting, really) hand on her shoulder. "Chlo?"

Her head twitches, and she retches again. I make sure to rub her back as she does, muttering some attempt-comforting bullshit to make her feel better. Or at least to just fill the silence. Because it is. Completely and totally silent. After whatever slaughter happened here, the air is quiet and still and every sound we make carries to a dull echo.

Copse calls back, "We need to move. The road outside is clear, but it probably won't be for long."

I help Chloe until she's calm, then bring her over. "You okay?"

She nods hurriedly, and I can hear a faint and truly disgusting sloshing sound as the draining systems work to pull the vomit away from her face down into her boots. Ah, technology. Have a couple people drown in their suits and boy do we come up with a disgusting plan to stop it.

Copse guides us out of the station, and I feel a familiar pang of my own nausea as the gravity shifts. The gravity gyro back in the central area of the station didn't reach out here, the lines couldn't carry a strong enough charge to the rings to make a difference, so they'd designed a modified plating to take advantage of centripetal force. Unfortunately for the stomachs of everyone involved, that meant a sharp transition from one gravity field to the other as up became forward and down became back. Human Beings barely did well crossing philosophical perspectives, nevermind actual physical perspective.

Chloe and I lurch out (Copse hops across the gravity gap with his usual unfazed grace. Asshole.) onto a familiar largish two-floored promenade. Across the street was an interior tramline station, the one Chloe and I usually took to get to the Two Whales Commissary. To our left, the road curved around out of sight, leading to a small shopping plaza that sold... well, tat, mostly, to catch any visitors coming through from the docks. The right lead to the EarthGov outpost.

Copse turned to us. "Which way to your family?"

Chloe points to the left. "Through the plaza. They're pretty close. Hella short walk to get there."

Copse nods. "Awesome." He starts off into the promenade, keeping an eye on the upper level. The area is still just as oppressively silent as the station, and every step we take echoes.

The silence continues as we walk, and our footsteps almost take on a heartbeat kind of rhythm. Ba-dumph. Ba-dumph. Ba-dumph.

It feels wrong to break the quiet stillness of the area around us, so none of us speak, just letting the beat of our footsteps guide us. The quiet continues even as we walk into the plaza. All the annoying tunes that used to play here had stopped, though the gaudy neon lights advertising what various wares were sold here are still on. It was kind of uncomfortable.

Copse holds out a hand for us to stop, and we freeze almost instinctively now as he scans the area. Suddenly, the pistol whips up in the direction of one of the slightly less destroyed storefronts. After a moment, he calls out "Come on out of there."

A small group of ragtag people start appearing from the ruins: some adults (four, three men and a woman), a couple of children (one boy, one girl), and one woman with slate-grey hair.

Copse doesn't lower the gun. "Who are you?"

The old woman steps forward, hands raised over her head. "We're just... people? I'm Hester, and I don't know anyone else. We were just hiding from those... those things." She gives a traumatised little shiver as she pictures whatever monsters happened here.

I step over to Copse's side. "What are you doing? They're clearly not monsters..."

He tilts his head and mutters "They could be Unitologists. Again, religious freedom, but I don't want to let them shoot us in the back."

Chloe scoffs. "Dude, do they look like Unitologists to you? They'd be running at us yelling shit if they were. They're just people who got hella fucked over by monsters."

He snorts. "Nobody _looks_ like a Unitologist. Beliefs are in their head, not on their lapels."

Again, Chloe doesn't visibly smirk, but I know she does. "They do kinda wander around with the symbol on their clothes, dude."

He pauses. "Fair point."

He lowers the gun.

Then, with a grunt and a nod, he simply continues across the plaza to the exit we needed to get to Chloe's parents place. I call out for him to stop and turn to Chloe. "Dog, look at them. We can't just leave them!"

The blinking blue lights of Chloe's helmet wash over the battered looking survivors and she nods. "Guess they can come with, if they can keep up."

* * *

Copse was not happy. I knew this because he kept repeating the fact. "I'm not happy about this."

I nod. "Got it, Copse. But we outvoted you like," I recount our new flock of vaguely distressed sheep. "nine to one, so..."

He growls, but stays quiet. The new members of our little group were definitely staying closer to us than him. It had made Chloe chuckle when I pointed it out. I guess it was fair for him to be... not happy, though. It was just him and Chloe protecting the rest of us (mostly him. Don't tell Chloe.) so I bet he was stressed.

The silence was breaking as we walked further, not by our footsteps - though ten people did walk louder than three - but by voices that gradually got louder and louder as we closed on the building Joyce and David lived in.

Copse called a halt a short way away and told the Chloe and the others to stay back. He turned to me. "You can be quiet. Come on, we'll go check it out."

I nod, and look back to Chloe with a "He's right." shrug. Her shoulders slump and she nods in agreement. The rest of our group go with her into a small side-alley to hide while Copse and I scout. Honestly, I was kind of terrified we'd get separated again, but there were children here. Chloe would be able to keep them safe.

Like she always did for me.

Copse leads our party of two forward along the side of the road. Faceless buildings I'd never really paid attention to lined both sides of the road, a dozen slate-grey monoliths looming over us like giants. We stick to the shadows, hiding in doorways and side-alleys wherever possible. It was slow going, but eventually we did make it up to the area where Joyce and David's building was.

It was... bad.

The front of the building faced out onto a t-junction. The diverging road was the main route to the nearest spacedock, and apparently the Unitologists knew it. They were massing at the junction, around two dozen of them joined by four massive monsters. They were like the sword-arm ones - with the same stretched, lean form with pale skin and hungry, chittering mandibles - but taller and broader, like they were the footballer jock version. As Chloe would've said if she were here, they were hella freaky.

The Unitologists seemed to be... escorting them? Each of the big monsters had a small flock of six or so surrounding them, clutching a mishmash of firearms and improvised weapons. A couple of them had these big buzz-saw things I'd seen Chloe use at work. There were way too many, and they were way too heavily armed. We couldn't take them, not with only two people and not with only a plasma cutter and a handgun.

Copse scowled at the crowd, leaning up ever so slightly to get a better view. I'd seen enough. I left him to it and stuck to watching his back. I did not want to get snuck up on right now.

We spent maybe five minutes sat there in silence, watching the milling crowd of people-monsters and actual monsters. Copse never took his eyes off them. What he found so interesting about them, I had no idea. I wanted to go.

But Copse knew his shit. So, we stuck around and waited until he was satisfied.

The trip back was quieter and I didn't try to break the silence. He was clearly thinking over the terrible, terrible odds we were facing. About halfway, he started to speak. "They're waiting for something. Something that isn't happening soon."

I didn't bother to ask how he knew that. I barely understood his tracking explanation, so this would just be even more confusing. I just say "Okay."

* * *

I rattle off what we saw, letting Copse drop in any extra details he'd noticed. I tried to get him to take the lead, but he still wasn't happy about the extra people we had with us. "If we're going to get through them, we're going to need help. Or another way in."

"Shit." Chloe's face-beams focused on me. "We can't leave them, Max. It's my Mom." She hesitates before adding. "And Step-Douche. "

I reach out and lay a hand on her shoulder. It tenses beneath my grip before relaxing, ever so slightly. "I know, Chlo. And we're not going to. We just need some help, right?" The ragtag band of followers we'd gained all nodded in agreement. "Okay, so. Anyone know a place?"

The agreeable band promptly avoided eye contact.

"Copse? Any Earth-Gov places around here that might help us out?"

Copse shakes his head. "Not likely. Earth-Gov around here are more likely to search you for contraband than anything else. And they're station security, not actual military. They'd have about as much armament as we do."

"Crap. Okay, anyone else?"

Still no eye contact.

"Anyone?"

Chloe's head suddenly tilts like she's remembering something. It's really fricking cute. She used to do it all the time when I poked her to- not the time. "Chloe..?" I ask, voice full of hope.

"I might have something. A place we can go. Not sure if anyone there will be willing to help us, they're kinda assholes, but we could at least hide there while we work shit out?"

Copse and I look at each other and both nod. "Sounds good." He says, warily. "Where is this place of assholes?"

"Uh, so the maintenance guys kinda have a... Batcave."

"A Batcave?" That sounds... familiar.

"Yeah, like the superhero dude?" She shrugs. "Anyway, it's safe. Like, hella safe. It's basically sealed off from the rest of the station except for one way in and..." She ruffles through one of the pouches for a second before triumphantly raising a keycard. "And I have a key!" After a beat, she adds "Plus, I'll be able to get out of this suit before I choke to death, so that'd be cool."

A couple of the flock chime in then, "We should go there.", and "If it's safe, it seems like a good idea." They seem confused by the choking thing, but just take it as another fucking weird moment in this fucking weird day and keep focused on the decision.

Chloe was obviously in, so I looked to Copse for his opinion. He gave me a surly look back, but nodded.

Chloe puts the key back in her pocket and tilts her head, mutter yelling "Where the hell is dock 36? Gimme a route, you useless piece of-" to the suit's internal RIG software.

Once she had a direction, she pointed broadly with one arm and strode off with a booming "This way!"

After a moment, she stopped, slammed herself in the side of the head, then turned around. "Nope. This way!"

Copse groans. "Yeah. This is gonna go great."

* * *

AN1 - Before any gun-people start, I know it's called a grip and not a handle. I'm just trying to show that Max is not a person who knows firearms. She can shoot them, because pulling a trigger at a window isn't hard, but she's not up on the specifics.

AN2 - Anyone who's played Dead Space will know how... ornery the anti-grav flight system can be. Still better than the one in the new Prey was though, but that's not saying much. There are dead elephants with mohawks and a sidecar that are easier to control than the Prey E.V.O system was. On a side note, every in-space sequence here was written with the Blue Danube Waltz playing along in my head, so...


	5. A New Friend?

Chapter V: A New Friend?

* * *

AN:

Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Fuck it. Saturday is update day now. I seem to be okay at getting two chapters up for then and I'm irritated every time I don't make Thursday so I'm changing the day to avert that irritation because I'm starting to get irritated by it too and it's too weird to deal with.

So, this is just a short one. I didn't have time to write more, but at least I'm on schedule. I literally finished this just before I uploaded it, and I've been writing a pretty decent amount of time this week, so this is currently the best I got. Hopefully it works for an introduction to the Haven (Official title pending) and a lead-in to the next part where they go find Joyce and David.

Also, new relevant game recommendation! It's called Echo, and it's kind of like Lost in Space meets that obnoxious neighbour game with a dash of HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's a stealth game where En is trying to get through this massive building called the Palace that learns her behaviours and creates mimics of her (called Echoes) that compensate for those behaviours. It's actually pretty good and the art is pretty as all hell. Four stars on Steam, too.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review

* * *

"So, what did you call this place we're going to?"

Chloe doesn't look around. "I didn't. We never really gave it a name. Everyone kept arguing over it, so we just gave up. Guess we can try again when we get there, but if anyone starts to fucking bitch..."

I chuckle. "Then we'll bitch-slap them into agreeing with us."

She looks around then, and I swear the facelights flicker bemusedly at me. She always did like the 'Us against the Galaxy' stuff.

"Does that mean there'll be people there?"

Chloe shrugs. "Could fucking be. It's a hella good spot and I'm not the only person with a key. Guess we'll find out when we get there."

"But it does have... you know. Food and stuff, right?" A safe place is only half the problem, after all. We still need all the usual things that help to keep a human being alive."

"Should do, but..."

"-you guess we'll find out when we get there." I finish, and her facelights definitely flicker with amusement at that. It makes me smile. Chloe always did get too stressed when stuff went... well. Bad. It always made me happy when I could make that easier, even if it was just for a second.

"Yep. We just passed Dock 36, so we're getting close now, anyway." She points off into the distance, to a side alley tucked away behind another damn CommShack. "Should be about ten minutes walk that way."

I turn my head to catch Copse's eye. I had to peer a little, on account of all the people between us, but I met his eye eventually. I mouth the timeframe and point in the direction Chloe told me. He follows my finger to the alley, then looks back to me and nods. "Acknowledged."

Awesomesauce.

* * *

We make the trip in a little under ten minutes. Chloe seemed pleased at the good time, but any happiness she felt quickly disappeared as she caught sight of the carnage ahead.

A lot of the bodies were wearing maintenance suits.

We crept through the silence, something within us loath to disturb the cloak of quiet stillness across this entire area. It reeked with death and the harsh metallic scent of blood, but we barely noticed it.

Then I noticed that I hadn't noticed it and started to freak out a little about getting used to this kind of horror and bloodshed and-

Keep calm, Max. You can do this.

Chloe stopped at a random patch of panelling and dropped to her knees. I heard her muttering curses under her breath as she thocked her knuckles on the metal there. "Shit fuck fuckingdamn fuckdamn shit on a motherfucking quadricycle for a self-sealing stimbolt piece of-" She growled suddenly, slamming her fist into the wall with a louder mutter of "Where's the fucking button, that-"

Every single one of us tenses, expecting the echoing yell to have brought whatever did this back to add us to the slaughter, but... one second passes, then another, then another, and we relax.

"Oh."

She taps a bit of the wall and it drops back to reveal a recess, in which there was... a button and a small scanner. She pulls the key out and swipes it at the scanner, then quick-steps back from the wall.

There's a few beats of silence, and I start to wonder if something might be broken, or if we might be stuck here, out in the blood and the open.

Eight people sigh in relief when the panel flashes and slides upwards to reveal a crawlspace about two people wide and two feet tall. Chloe, I hope, knew it was going to happen, and Copse was busy keeping watch.

Chloe spins back to look at us, full of confidence and swagger like she never had any doubt about the outcome of this. "Right. So, we gotta crawl in. Did I mention that already? I guess not. Eh." After a pause, she adds "Anyone not good with cramped spaces?"

Everyone gives her a look that says claustrophobia is far easier to deal with than the chaos out here (also, we live on a space station), so she shrugs and gets in the crawlspace. We're all inside, and about ten feet in (how long is this crawlspace, jeez), before I remember something. "Uh, Chlo? What about the door? Aren't we just gonna-"

Chloe reaches out and taps a switch on the wall that I hadn't noticed and the door slides shut behind us. The headlights point back to me, and I know for a fucking fact that she's giving me the smuggest of smug grins. I just roll my eyes and mouth at her to keep crawling already. She chuckles and gets back to it.

* * *

We make three (or was it four?) turns and crawl for another few dozen feet and I feel totally lost by the time we make it back into open space again. I eye the space slightly... sceptically. "It's... a bit small, isn't it?"

Chloe puts a hand on my shoulder and turns me around.

"Wowzers."

This place was huge! Like, shuttle-hangar kind of huge, with spiralling towers of rooms and passageways scattered across the vast cavernous space. "How the hell did you guys manage to keep this place a secret?"

Chloe shrugs, helping Hester (I think that was the old woman's name?) up from the crawlspace. "No fucking clue, Maxie. We just sorta sealed it all off and nobody noticed. Pretty sure it was just disused storage before we got to it."

"Huh."

"Yep."

The rest of the group had filed out and were all eyeing the space with much the same wonder as I had. One of the adults was pointing things out to the kids and they were gasping every time something cool showed up. Which were mostly just drones but, hey, at least they were getting to be children for once. Putting people that young through situations like this was just... wrong. Like marring a beautiful photo with globs of misdeveloped colour. It just...

I sighed. Chloe promptly came over and slung an arm over my shoulder. "Great place, huh?"

"Hella great," I lean my head on her shoulder, clunking lightly against the suit. I can feel her chuckle. "But where's the shower?"

She hugs me closer. "Nerd."

Every time. I still don't understand how that's nerdy, and Chloe just laughs every time I ask her to explain it. I tune back in when I notice she'd kept talking. "-inda need to get to the tool-shed first. I really wanna get this thing off me. It fuckin' stinks in here."

Now it's my turn to chuckle. "Sure, we'll get your suit unsealed first. Then," I lean in, so none of the others can hear me. "Maybe you can join me in the shower?"

Chloe's entire body stutters for a moment as I walk off. I grin.

My grin disappears as people begin to appear out of the metalwork (AN: Like future woodwork? I dunno, I thought it worked.) to gasp and stare at us like we're new explorers arriving in an alien world on some sci-fi show. I stick up a hand and wave. "Hi."

A couple of them wave back, but most just stare. That's... weird. I tilt my head and call back over my shoulder. "Chloe? Copse? There's... um... people here."

Chloe, when she gets over the stuttering, strides past me to an older woman with a gun-metal grey afro that's wearing a slightly more expensive looking version of the maintenance suit Chloe has. Maybe she's a supervisor or something? I have no idea, but whoever she is Chloe is arguing with her. Loudly. "You try to force us back out there and we'll message every one of those Unitologist lunatics with the coordinates of your special secret hideout and instructions to bring as much explosive shit as they can. Got it?"

The woman nodded hurriedly then, with a glare back to Chloe, walked over to us with her arms wide. "Welcome to the Haven. I'm Temba. Chloe tells us you need a place to stay?"

Copse steps forward. "Yes ma'am. And we're willing to pull our weight to stay."

Temba's glare recedes from him, just a little, but all that meant was more glare at Chloe behind her. She gave a sharp little nod and swivelled on her heels to face Chloe again. "Come along and we'll get you settled in."

Copse follows with all the natural instinct of a military man, but I have to stop and blink in mild shock at the sheer... businesslike tone. As the others file past me, chattering excitedly about having a safe place to stay, and knocking me with their shoulders, I shake it off and hurry to catch up with the three at the head of the line. "The Station went to shit barely a few hours ago - I think, it's been kind of hard to keep track of the time - and you're acting like you've been here for months. How've you got this... organised, so quickly?"

Temba finally cracks a smile, and shrugs with one shoulder. "It's simple. We're engineers."

* * *

It took about an hour for our group to dissemble and head off to find whatever they need to settle in with. And for Chloe and I to... um... shower. What? It's been a stressful day. I needed to relax and it's not like they have any books here. Well, books that aren't engineering texts (or being used to hold up a coffee table in one of their four (fucking four!? how the hell did they get four dormitories in here (and a bar. these people have an actual functioning bar in here. what. (also, I might've gone too far with the parentheses here)) and they somehow filled the twenty bed capacity of two of them, nearly three with us being here now) charmingly upholstered dormitories... (ahem).

When all... business was seen to, the three of us went and found Temba.

When we asked her for volunteers to go up against a horde of monsters, she wasn't exactly enthusiastic.

"No."

"But-"

"No."

"Ple-"

"No."

"They-"

"No!"

The door squeaks as someone pushes it open. Their footsteps clack on the floor as they walk slowly in. We look up, mildly shocked at the interruption, and our jaws drop as a woman appears. She's wearing shades, jeans, some truly bizarre footwear, and a faded leather jacket. She reaches up, shaking her feathered blonde hair as she takes off the shades and folds them up before tucking one of the arms into her shirt. "One of your friends says you're lookin' to go kick some monster ass."

Chloe nods mutely.

The woman grins. "Awesome. I'm Ricky, but my friends call me Mac."

Temba frowns, viciously.

* * *

"So, Ricky?"

"Mac." She corrects without looking back as we stride forward toward Joyce and David's place. Chloe is eyeing her with mild to moderate awe.

I think I might be jealous.

"Mac, what do you... do?"

She smirks. "I'm an engineer. That means I make problems work for me."

"Oh."

My response feels a little... useless. Plus, I think Chloe might be swooning a little.

Fucking. Ugh.


	6. Family Rescue

Chapter VI: Family Rescue

* * *

AN:  
Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Sorry for the radio silence. Something truly terrible happened and it's taken me awhile to adjust to this sad new world I find myself in. I found out that... that... I'm a Hufflepuff! Oh the shame! The ignominy! The mortification! I kid. Hufflepuff fo' Lyfe, bruv. Actually, things have been pretty good recently. I've been planning fics out like crazy and now I've got a pretty detailed idea of where each of the fifteen (fifteen! when did that happen, jeez?) uploaded fics I have are going and how long it'll take to get there. Also been doing uni work and starting my final year psych study (I came up with an idea to pilot study my big idea so I can use it for a masters or doctorate later on and use the pilot study as a 'look! it works, okay? you gotta let me do it, you mean 'ole ethics board!' point when I finally get there). Unfortunately, all that has meant a serious lack of time to write until about two weeks ago. I was gonna upload last weekend, but I decided I'd try write four chapters for this update and took another week instead.

My current plan for this month is to get as many of my uploaded stories as possible to the end of 'Act I' (turns out actually planning and structuring things properly helps; who'd've thunk it?), and maybe start putting together an advance timetable so y'all know which stories you'll be getting uploads for in advance rather than leaving them on hold for literal months (sometimes in excess of a year). It's not a concrete plan, but it might work better than what I'm doing now so it's what I'm going with for the moment.

Also, while rereading the Blackwell Job, I realised that really kind of suck at writing David. So, I fixed that problem by making him even gruffer and more monosyllabic than in canon. He's a cranky old desk-job-cop husband with a cane, so it seemed fitting to have him be a little more... terse. If he speaks less, I don't have to write him as much, right? :)

See if ya can guess who 'Mac' is supposed to be. The first name and the whole engineer thing is a big clue. :)

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review

* * *

Mac gestures to the mass of crazy people with somehow laid-back astonishment. "Now that is a lot of folks right there."

I raise an eyebrow and stare at her guileless, serene face. "Yes. Yes it is."

Nobody notices the sarcasm.

Copse was also staring at the Unitologists, who seem to be... chatting. Well. That's uncomfortable to see. Fanatic lunatics babysitting literal monsters from your nightmares shouldn't make chitchat.

I carefully concentrate on not freaking out as I catch sight of the monsters again; . "So, what are we going to do about them?"

I start to wave a hand to the Unitologists, but stop myself mid-swing as I realise I'm mimicking Mac's movement from earlier and whip my hand back to my side. "And can you even use a gun?"

Mac just shrugs. "Never really needed to. Problems usually just provide their own solutions."

I swallow my scowl and give an open smile. "Well, okay. What solution do you have in mind here?"

She stares off at the Unitologists for a few moments, then promptly turns and strides into a nearby building without saying another word.

We all blink mutely (both at the door and at each other) as she disappears, then returns a few uncomfortably long minutes later (just after a worryingly loud crash came from inside the building) with an armful of random stuff that seems to have been duct-taped and welded together into a half dozen spheres. She slouches back over to us, and very, very carefully places them on the ground next to us. "So, which of you is the best shot?"

Copse and Chloe both speak up at the same time. "I am."

I sigh.

"What do you need to shoot?"

She drops a hand to rest on the weird sphere things. "These're explosive, but I couldn't find a trigger assembly. I need someone to shoot 'em to make 'em, y'know..," She spreads her hands wide to emphasise her last word. "boom."

"So take both of them. Chloe will shoot three, Copse will shoot three." I grumble irritably.

Mac just shrugs. "Fine by me. Get ready." She picks up the spheres and starts to move closer. Copse and I share a look, and he shrugs. So, we move forward after Chloe and Mac and take up positions.

Mac made to throw immediately, but I stop her with a hand on the shoulder. "I'll count you all down." I mouth.

She shrugs again, still unbothered by it all. So, fuck it. I count down from three, and she starts throwing sphere after sphere into the crowd. It's almost rhythmic: throw, land, roll, throw, land, roll, throw, land - Boom.

Copse's shot gets the first sphere and the thing just sort of... explodes, sending shards of random objects flying in every direction that just... tear into the flesh of whatever had the misfortune to get in their way: Three Unitologists and one of the monsters. Suddenly, all the shards of whatever she'd used in the bomb suddenly dragged all the things they'd hit back to where the sphere landed and then it all just... disappeared into itself.

There's a brief delay as we process what happened, everything around us going quiet as Unitologist and Engineer alike just stare.

Then, all hell breaks loose again.

The remaining Unitologists dart outwards, getting behind whatever cover was nearest to them, and start shooting at us. Copse and Chloe shoot back, and shoot another two of the spheres that devour another four Unitologists and two of the monsters between them. The next few minutes fly by as we exchange shots back and forth. A wayward dying shot from a Unitologist that Chloe took out grazed Copse, but other than that we were doing pretty well. None of us were dead or (seriously) injured and we'd taken out a full third of the Unitologist horde.

Good going, right? Copse seemed to think so. Without taking his eyes off the enemy, he waved a hand for us to move forward. I think. Honestly, the military action movies were more Chloe's thing than mine, but from the 'are you fucking crazy?' look she was giving him, that's probably what it meant. Copse spared a look over to us when we didn't move, and glared at Chloe. "If we wait here, they'll swarm us and we'll die. We have to move."

So, we tried for the door.

The front entrance to the building was at the top of a short flight of thin stairs. Between us and the door was a small garden that was entirely destroyed, aside from a few still-standing metal fences that lined the paths through the greenery. They were supposed to stop people running on the grass, but I guess they never accounted for monsters. We picked a path and sprinted as fast as we could.

Unfortunately, it was too open, and we were quickly forced to dive behind whatever we could as the twenty-ish Unitologists left began shooting at all of us. Copse and Chloe tried to shoot back, but ten rounds of plasma is hard to dodge, so we were stuck.

I yelled back at Copse. "What do we do?"

He gave me an agonised look and resorted to blind-firing over the fence. I peeked around my fence. Wowzers, he didn't hit anything. Another round of plasma forced him back behind his fence before he could shoot again, and thus we were all stuck cowering behind some flimsy sheets of metal.

The Unitologists seemed angry we weren't making better targets and began to focus their fire on our flimsy cover. Copse had to fall back behind stronger cover as the metal fence he was hiding behind began to melt until the barrage of so much plasma. Mac tried to throw another of her weird spheres, but a hail of plasma fire forced her to retake cover. Chloe stayed shooting the longest, taking out three or four of them, but she quickly got overwhelmed by shots and was forced back as well.

Wowzers, this is going even worse than we thought it would the first time. Why didn't we get more help than just one lone asshole engineer?

I dart over to Chloe, keeping my head low and trying to keep my breathing steady as people shoot at me. It's not easy, but I make it and duck behind her into the alley at the side of Joyce and David's building. I think Copse and Mac had made it to the alley on the opposite side, but they were getting pushed back harder than we were. I guess they thought the woman with the disintegrating sphere bomb things was more dangerous than one woman with a gun and me, who couldn't shoot at all.

There were over a dozen of them closing in on them and the monsters were charging and screaming and honestly - and I feel so ashamed that I even thought this - but I considered leaving them and just running for the door with Chloe.

But I couldn't, even if we'd decided to.

The rest of them were coming for us.

Faces started appearing at the end of the alley, joyous, almost beatific faces staring at us down the barrels of their guns. They started to shoot, forcing us back down the alley.

I'd seen the rest when I ran in, and it was a dead end. Without a miracle, we'd be dead too. And I didn't believe in those. It felt like there was a swarm of them flooding into the alley, even though it was only eight or so. We could barely see the other end now, which was lucky, since two of the monsters were currently looming there.

"Max? What do we do, Max?" Chloe was taking desperate potshots down the alley, dodging behind some kind of trashbin.

I... I had no idea. Wait, the bin! "Shove the bin forward. Maybe we can block them off for a while?"

She scoffs, but still grabs it. "Until what? Someone comes past and gets shot? Hella unlikely, Maxie. We gotta face it, we're-"

Several small shapes woosh overhead, firing into the horde. They all quickly disappear from the alley, retreating back from these flying shooting things...

"Well. That was... good timing?"

Chloe pokes her head over the bin. "They're fucking gone. What even were those things?"

"I have-"

There's a familiar scream from one of the monsters, followed by a rattling hail of gunfire.

"We should probably get inside."

"Yep."

We dash out of the alley, coming face to face with Copse and Mac. She looks just as unfazed as she always did. Copse was just as confused as we were. "What was-"

I shrug, keeping my hand on Chloe's shoulder as she surveys the alarmingly empty area. "We have no idea. Just get inside before they come back."

They obviously agree with our plans, turning and sprinting for the front door with us. It's unlocked, bizarrely, sliding open as we approach.

* * *

We run through the door with less care than we probably should, splitting off immediately for any cover from the outside. Fortunately for us, the lobby was empty. Apparently none of the monsters had bothered with this building yet, it still looked exactly like it did before all this happened. Neat, orderly, utterly devoid of personality, and filled with far too many announcements from the busybodies that lived in the building. Seriously, Janine, nobody gives a crap about your petunias, okay? Jeez.

"I... I don't think anyone's coming after us." Chloe pokes her head out from behind the row of mailboxes she'd hidden behind (fallen over) and squinted towards the door.

Copse stands, holstering his gun. "We should keep moving either way. Where do your parents live, Chloe?"

"Uh," Chloe dragged her eyes away from the door with a visible exertion of willpower. "Fifth floor. Apartment six, I think. Could be seven. Is it seven? Or eight?"

I walk up and lay a hand on her shoulder. I feel her quivering under my hand for a few seconds before she sighs and her body relaxes. "It's six, Copse."

He nods, and heads for the stairs. Chloe immediately baulks. "Dude, the fucking elevator's literally just over there, why-"

"Because it's a choke-point. If any of those things are up there, we'll be trapped in the box."

"So, we just close the door, right?"

He snorts at Chloe's question. "If you want to try close an elevator door faster than one of those damn things can run, you're welcome to try. I'm taking the stairs."

Mac nods, and moves to follow. I squeeze Chloe's shoulder and remove my hand. "He's right, Chloe. Come on, the quicker we start, the quicker it'll be over."

With one last longing look at the elevator, Chloe follows us up to the stairs.

* * *

"Fuckin' A, we finally- haaaaah, jeez - We finally made it!"

"This is the third floor, Chloe."

"Fuuuuuuu-

* * *

"Sixth floor!"

"Fifth floor, so you were closer this time!"

"Damnit!"

* * *

"Okay, now we've gotta be-"

"Seventh floor. How did we end up on the seventh floor?"

"Shit, I think we missed a turn."

"What the fuck, guys, are you-"

"We're kidding, Chloe. Yeah, we're here."

"Fuck you guys."

We all chortle, even Copse, at Chloe's irritation. I tap her shoulder. "Don't worry, Chlo'. We're here now. It'll be okay, we just need to find that apartment." I feel kind of bad for teasing her, but hey. The world is over, we need to get smiles where we can.

Copse takes the lead, heading down and counting the numbers of the doors lining both sides of the sixth floor corridor. The corridor we were on only had apartments seven to ten, and if I hadn't have been apologising quietly to Chloe for the teasing one of us would've been able to tell him that. Instead, he takes us down the corridor, then pokes around the corners at the end. After a second, he raises his gun and quickly steps out into corridor. "Identify yourself."

Whoever he's aimed at give a few muffled squawks of complaint at having a weapon aimed at them and his eyes narrow. Chloe and I poke our heads around the corner just in time to hear a gruff voice mutter something about "Presumptuous punks trying to-"

"Mom!"

Chloe dashes forward and wraps her arms around the familiar shape of Joyce Madsen. The woman, though taken aback at first, hugs back with a warm smile. "Hi Chloe. I'm so glad you're okay."

David simply gave a gruff nod, not moving to hug either of us. He and Chloe had gotten better, but they still weren't hugging-close. He continued his conversation with the third member of their little group. I took a quick look; she was an older woman, maybe sixty or seventy by her weathered looking skin, standing slightly within her doorway. Her hawkish, vaguely piercing gaze was locked onto David, never leaving him once despite our... interruption.

I wave awkwardly from my position back at the corner. "Hi Joyce."

"It's good to see you too, Max." She smiles, then releases Chloe. My wife shuffles her feet sheepishly on the ground, filling the corridor with a painful skreek sound as her boots scrape on the floor.

I chuckle, and start to listen into David's conversation. Chloe and Joyce were talking, it seemed polite to give them some privacy. Well, as much privacy as you can get in a corridor full of people.

"You got what I said now? You be sure to-"

"I know, I know, Mr Madsen." The woman wafts a dismissive hand. "Board up my windows and lock all my doors and stay away from the vents and do this and that and the other or the monsters will kill me. I appreciate your concern, young man," What is it about hitting sixty that seems to make more and more people call others by their age? We don't call them 'old person' in casual conversation. Plus, David was approaching sixty years old himself, so the young man moniker was a little... patronising. David didn't seem to mind though, but I guess if she was a neighbour he'd probably heard it enough to become inured to it. "but I will not let some upstart loonies and their freakish pets scare me out of my home. It's rent controlled, you know. My late husband got the deal for us."

David's long-suffering sigh was visible on his face, even if it didn't actually escape him. "Yes, Maureen. I know. But please, make sure you stay inside."

With a last grumble, the woman disappeared back into her apartment. David had to quick-step backward to avoid being crushed in the door as the two halves slid closed. A moment later, the blue open button flashed orange.

David scowls, muttering to himself. "At least she locked the damn door, like I told her to."

He swivels about-face on his cane until he's angled towards us, his eyes immediately flickering over each of us the moment we get into his vision. Some habits never change. His eyes linger suspiciously on Copse even as he smiles at me. "Hello, Max. Good to see you're alive."

Heh. More than a few things, I guess.

"Hi, David. You too."

We both go quiet and wait for Joyce and Chloe's hugging and mutual grateful-to-be-alive conversation to finish. David and I always were the quiet partners. We'd found out we had a lot in common over the years, but being two quiet people married to loud, talkative ones was definitely the main thing. Copse has no such patience. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we need to get you two out of here."

Joyce bristles. "Now, hold your horses there. We're not leaving. There are still people in here who need help."

"And there will be four more if we don't get out of here now. The Unitologists outside are gone, but they will be back soon and then we'll be trapped in here."

She glares at him. "These people are our neighbours, our friends. We ain't going to just abandon them. We're going to stay with them."

"Then you will die with them!"

That conversation really does sound better in Elvish... David strides over to stand by his wife, framed on the opposite side with Chloe. The three of them glare Copse down. He doesn't back down, insisting "We have to leave. There's a safe place nearby, your daughter-"

"Yeah, I found it, dude. Let me tell them." Chloe interrupts Copse before he can steal her thunder. He steps back with a 'by all means' gesture.

"The douchebag is right. We gotta get out, and we gotta get out now. We've got a place to hide that's hella safe. You're gonna come with." Chloe crossed her arms, glaring harshly between her mom and step-father. Everything in her stance was just daring them to disagree.

Her parents seemed to be slightly taken aback by the intensity. I wasn't surprised by it. Chloe always did try to protect her loved ones from whatever danger was out there. Something she and David had found they had in common, especially that they both did it in the worst freaking ways possible.

Joyce and David share a look, communicating whatever arguments they had in a glance. David shrugged, Joyce nodded. I swallow a sigh of relief "Okay, Chloe. We'll leave. Hopefully the rest of the building will stay outta sight."

David strode up to Copse, clapping one hand on the man's shoulder and leading on his cane with the other. "You're the one with the gun. You lead."

Copse nodded in acknowledgement, not speaking up. Apparently the man had at least some sense of diplomacy, he'd gotten his way now and he wasn't going to say anything to make them change their minds. Honestly, it was kind of confusing. He'd seemed far more... tactful and funny when we'd first met him. He'd certainly poked fun at us more then than now. Maybe the stress was getting to him? I know it was getting to me, and no EarthGov military training could really prepare you for seeing... what we'd seen.

I was pulled out of my mulling as my face clunked against the hard metal ridging of Chloe's RIG. My hand immediately reached up to my face and I grimace as my head pangs with pain. "Ow."

Chloe tilts her head to look back at me and smirks. Dog, I've missed being able to see her face. "Forgot to watch where you were going, Maxie? Or did you just get distracted staring at my amff-"

I also missed being able to clap my hand over her mouth when she started saying things like that. Her eyes narrow above my hand and there's a sudden wet sensation on my fingers as she freaking licks me. I immediately whip my hand away and wipe it on her suit. "Ew, Chloe!"

She laughs, and pulls me into a hug, muttering something in my ear that doesn't bear repeating. My face was red when she finished though. She let me go and stepped back, laughing again at the thoroughly distracted look on my face.

I look up to her face, pushing away the embarrassment. "I'm glad we found them."

She smiles. "Yeah, me too, Maxie." Her face takes on a distant look, and she mutters. "I was hella fucking worried."

I smile back at her a few moments, then I take her hand and lead her to catch up with the others. Her happy expression immediately disappears when she sees the stairs.

* * *

The street outside was disturbingly empty. "Those things still aren't back..."

"Isn't that a good thing, Maxie?" Chloe chuckles. "You really wanna complain that the monsters aren't back again?"

"No, it's just... worrying." You couldn't be sure to take the right picture if you couldn't see the things that were out of the frame. I notice Copse out the corner of my eye giving me an approving look. I guess he mistook my terror for wariness.

I wasn't sure who gave the order to move forward, but the whole group of us quickly edged out of the building, down the stairs, and into the garden. It was thoroughly destroyed now. What few fences were still up when we entered were gone and what few plants were still alive were torn to pieces. There were also... "Do Unitologists have some kind of... funeral belief?"

Copse shakes his head. "Not really. They believe in more of a rebirth thing, if I remember right. Something to do with us all joining together as one after we go. Really freaky-kumbaya kind of deal. Why?"

"You guys killed some Unitologists while we were trying to break in here, right?"

Copse started looking around the garden. "Right..." He clearly still wasn't getting what I was intimating.  
"Where are the bodies? I know some of them would've been got by Mac's freaking strange," The engineer flashes a smart grin. "bombs, but there should still be a few around. Especially after those flying things came."

"What flying things-" David started, but Chloe quickly interrupted and gave him the cliff's notes of our rescue attempts. He, uh... he didn't seem happy at the fact that Chloe had killed people, but he shook his head before speaking. Clearly a topic for later when said people who we'd shot at weren't in danger of coming back for a third go.

Everyone started looking far more intently at the space around us, searching for any sign of moved bodies, or anything, really. There wasn't a sign of anything. He and Copse began pointing out various clues to what happened that didn't seem to be really clues to what happened. Like, the pools of blood were smeared, but none of them had the telltale tracks of a dragged body. They looked more like somebody had slipped in them. Copse had scowled dismissively at the failed investigation and turned away to keep watch, but David had kept staring intently at that stain. "It almost looks like..." He shakes his head. "No, that can't be right." He straightens up and looks away. "Nevermind."

Copse tilts his head back, trying to keep all of us, and our surroundings, in view at all times. He seemed to be managing it too, which was impressive. "If you're done poking uselessly about, we should get moving. Staying out here is even worse than staying in there."

Even David couldn't disagree with that one.

We got moving, heading back down the road we'd came from. Mac was eyeing David like she expected him to slow us down, but the old guy was damn quick on his feet with that cane. If he wasn't deliberately staying behind the armed Copse, he'd probably be leading the group.

Unlike the way here, we were sticking to the middle of the roads. I wasn't sure why, it seemed stupid to not be hiding like we knew worked, but I wasn't going to question the people with training. Maybe they knew something I didn't. I slow a little as we reached the intersection of another T-Junction, just appreciating the silence around us. Wowzers, it's so quiet out here. You could almost hear a-

Almost in unison, we all look down the other street.

Oh.

Shit.

The entire area was suddenly filled with screams and howls, screeching sounds of rage and hunger, as the horde of monsters milling about the other street all focus on us with laser-intensity. The next moment felt like it lasted for hours, just us staring at them and them staring at us, but the moment finished and they charged. The screaming intensified. I could feel my heart wrench in my chest as Chloe and Copse stepped forward slightly, blasting away at the approaching horde. There were no Unitologists here, but there were far more monsters. Too many for the two of them to take.

As they closed, a wing of those strange flying things that saved us before - are they following us? - swooped down in front of us and we finally got a decent look at them. They were little spheres set into the bottom of what looked like beetle carapaces. Each one had a bright light on top and a large gun on the bottom. The monsters didn't stop their charge, so the flying machines began to shoot.

The hail of bullets was astonishing. Whatever these machines were, they'd fired more shots in a few minutes than I'd ever seen in my life. The creatures finally broke under fire. Physically, not mentally. For psychotic killing machines, these monsters sure were fragile. Most of them were ripped to pieces and the third that remained were quickly lured off by the brightly glowing machines flying at and past them.

One of the machines doubles back and settles, floating about two feet above and in front of us. "You should probably get moving. They're gone for now, but they'll be back soon." The light on top flickers with each word. The voice sounded... alarmingly human.

We stare for a few moments before the flying thing coughs awkwardly. "Um. Hello? Could you, y'know, get on that? With the running? Seriously, my- oh, there goes Huey. Damn. Poor little guy. Oscar's going to miss him."

"What are-"

"Seriously, more of them are coming and they are coming back right now and they are going to rip your arms off or something equally horrible. Run already!"

We run like hell.

[END OF ACT I]


End file.
